


Beneath The Surface

by smolshipper



Series: Beneath The Surface Series [1]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Also Undertale but not really????, Author Is Sleep Deprived, Author both regrets everything but also nothing at the same time, Bad Puns, Don't mess with the multiverse, F/M, Frisk is still human though, I'm going to pull internet theories and you can't stop me, Master Chef Papyrus, Multi, Multiple Universes Colliding, Reader Is Not Chara (Undertale), Reader Is Not Frisk (Undertale), Reader has a Description, Reader is way too strong, Reader needs to chill sometimes, Sans (Undertale) Makes Puns, Sans isn't a jerk for once, Skeleton Puns, Slow Burn, Sorry guys, Tags Are Hard, Tags May Change, The humans and monsters have switched sides, Underfell but not really, Underswap but not really, eg. Toriel and Papyrus. etc... are humans above ground, reader has nightmares, reader is a monster, screw your gratification, the author just hit the puns tag and there's some weird results, yeah i guess
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-29
Updated: 2019-09-29
Packaged: 2020-07-25 11:35:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 67,706
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20025145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smolshipper/pseuds/smolshipper
Summary: Frisk resets after a True Pacifist Run takes a bad turn for monsters. Now the game has changed completely: The Skeleton brothers and the rest of the monsters... Aren't monsters any more. They're humans. On the Surface. The previous Humans are now the monsters sealed beneath Mt. Ebott. Frisk, with no impulse control, flings himself Underground again.Now enter Y/n Draco, Second in command of the Royal Guard, second only to your mother, the Captain herself. You're a humanoid-dragon-fish monster with a Royal Scientist for a Dad, Mighty Warrior for a Mom and Ultimate Healer for a Little Brother. Your family feels like a D&D party, but hey, you all get along and don't have to keep too many secrets from each other.Until your little brother brings a human into Waterfall and begs you not to tell your Mom. Your Ex-turned-friend convinces you to guide the human to the capital. Your little brother tags along. You're committing treason against the Crown.... But now you're free, so yay. But what do you do when the broken fragments of your Dad's mentor haunt you/your Mage neighbors until you rebuild a multiverse machine in an attempt to find him. You can imagine why that project might not work out for you all.





	1. Beneath the Surface, Where the Monsters Lay

**Author's Note:**

> I listened to too much music before I fell asleep and this mess happened. I hope you're proud of me, guys.
> 
> Also: Sans and Paps are human. All their AU counterparts, except for one pair, are also humans, hence, the Under____ but not really tags
> 
> enjoy  
-smol

Frisk was scared. This new human government was not a safe one. No matter how many times they reset, there’s something wrong that forces his friends back underground. Frisk had to reset continuously to save monsters and rewrite history to keep their new family safe. Now he could smell the dust in the air. Toriel was guarding the door to the room Frisk had fled to, as a raid on the Monster Housing District was moving fast and was 100% lethal to the monsters under siege. Soon there was a horrible groan from outside the door, and men’s voices rang out in victory from behind the door, which had new white powder spilling from under it. The dusting was soon followed by attempts to break down the door.

There was a window out of this room, but where would Frisk go? What was the point if all the monsters were massacred? Then what? Everyone knew what the Ambassador of the Monsters looked like, and fleeing back Underground felt like running into a dead end. Who knows how many humans would slip past the puzzles and eventually find him.

He’d theoretically have to rely on Flowey- Asriel, to save him, if he got that far. But then what? What if they managed to get Flowey too? Either he died, was imprisoned for life, pretty much a death anyways, or hide there forever, feeding off whatever was left of the caverns, never able to safely return until he figured a way to slip around or through the town unnoticed and then live on with the guilt of letting all their family and friends die and doing nothing?

What kind of a life was that to live? Frisk probably couldn’t live on like that. He could hope some monsters got away, or into hiding, likely what the boss monsters did when they were overrun, Sans teleporting him and his brother out of harm’s way, maybe others outsmarting humans, duping them, or getting out of dodge when everything first got out of hand.

But what were those chances? The door was creaking, the window wasn’t budging, and Frisk didn’t want to listen to the sounds of more dusting monster, or the screams of the taken. They didn’t deserve this, and Frisk couldn’t let them keep suffering.

Frisk dreaded this next decision. He promised. He promised Sans and Flowey that he wouldn’t send everyone back. But it was now or never, again. There was too much death and sacrifices that shouldn’t have been. They pull up the menu, the golden light searing into his eyes, **[RESET]**. That damned button. A source of relief and grief at the same time, sometimes they couldn’t tell which one it was.

Frisk squeezed his eyes shut, and took one deep breath. Just as the door began to splinter, he whispered a quick “I’m sorry,” and slams their fist down on the glowing button. Watching as the world seemed to disappear from around him, as this run finally deleted itself. What a nightmare, as Flowey would say. Frisk hopes the next Sans would forgive him.

….

Frisk blinks. Once. Twice. Thrice. His body lies limp for a moment, before the feeling returns, almost like a computer powering up. They’re sitting in front of a colourfully lit television, a gaming controller loosely held in their hands and **DEFEAT** lighting up across the red and yellow screen, a character in a pink parka pouting under the word. Frisk’s surprised to say he’s never woken up like this before, which lights the familiar light of curiosity back into their Soul, dampening the fear and dread they just left behind (along with all that _ dust _) in the small, last room.

New memories flood their head, as per each **[TRUE RESET]**, although this one was… new. He’s 13 now, older than usual, more athletic, stronger, smarter, a little hormonal, but manageable. Different faces. New family. Previously unseen places. A new schedule. A new Timeline, with new rules. A rush of adventure lust rushes through them at the thought.

New muscle memory directs Frisk around the room, gathering a backpack, snacks, a small first aid kit, small compass and multi tool, water bottle, relatively nice flannel and he put on loose pants that could easily be rolled up in cold climates. And their smartphone. This was a more modern start than their usual runs.

New memories showed that in this world, he was still the unstoppable adventurer that Frisk knew himself to be. It would not be questioned if he left for a whole day or two (a week would be questioned though, so they had a bit of a time limit as usual), since they frequently went camping, and had a secret hideout in the woods surrounding the mountain area.

He quickly grabs his pair of trusty, waterproof boots, with thick winter treads, but foldable into a more shoe like shape, for warmer weather. His new memories tell him he got them a couple months ago, and they've never failed him.

Frisk waves a cheerful farewell to his mother, Toriel, on the way out, says he’s going to his hideout, that he’ll call if he needs anything, he loves her, he’ll buy his own food, etc, his father, Asgore, calls to him: clean the guest rooms when you come back, because cousin Sans and cousin Pap were coming over this weekend, etc, etc…

Time to liberate another civilization.

….

Blue roses were a first, even odder, was the lack of thorns. So was the living blue flower, nothing like Flowey, who called herself Rosey instead, and promised to guide them out of the Underground, as long as Frisk kept her relatively hidden throughout the journey. That was doable with the small backpack they brought.

Frisk was silently giddy about all the changes and off the bat less hostility he was receiving on this new run. He couldn’t wait to meet everyone else.

…

You stretched your arms above your head and groaned, feeling you spine pop at the movement. You wouldn’t lie: being in the Royal Guard was definitely your chosen life passion, but it would never change how boring patrols got. You were used to the weight of the uniform armour, so much so that you felt light and almost floaty when you took it off. You didn’t even sweat the heat of Hot land when you visited the lab these days, and could stroll unflinchingly into Snowdin with a t-shirt and shorts.

Speaking of Snowdin, you heard the news from the grapevine that a human had finally fallen, and should have passed through Snowdin by now.. Everyone knew this would be the last soul required to bust us all out, but they also knew it would be morally better not to murder humans, especially since this one was still in their stripes. Many monsters would usually rather fall down than injure children.

"At attention, Y/n, don't be caught unaware." Your mother scolded.

You guessed it might have been deserved, but you highly doubt she hasn't ever gotten stiff necks on her patrols either. But, you supposed if you were going to try and replace her one day, you might as well keep following her lead. You had to be better than her for the position.

Azlan, a Sentry of Snowdin, was meeting with your mother today. The human was supposed to have passed through his/his brother’s territory and your mother, Head of the Royal Guard, wanted him to bring the human she trusted him to have captured to her on this meeting. Or at least bring an update on the condition of Snowdin and its inhabitants if he did not have the human. At Least it wasn't his brother, Andrew. He'd been grading on your nerves for so long, and for someone who lived in such a cold climate, he was _ stupidly _ hot headed and grudge holding. You guessed one might say… he needed to chill…

You'll stop now. You can see your friend, the soon-to-be-interrogated monster making his way up the path, with some short monsters passing through as well, to whom your mother nodded a greeting. You followed her example for courtesy's sake. You planned to hang out with Azlan after. You couldn’t be faulted for missing your buddy, and wouldn’t get in trouble as long as you two followed your assigned patrol route and kept being aware.

…

The meeting did _ not _ start well. Azlan marched in, looking hopeful and confident, but once he began his mission summary, he began to deflate and look more, and more on edge, as you could feel your mother’s eyes behind her helmet scrutinizing him. Poor monster. He was doing his best to be on the neutral side. The lynx monster was bright, and energetic as usual, but it was fading fast as your mother calmly berated him for a failed capture, and “friendship won’t move us Topside, Sentry Azlan. We appreciate your enthusiasm, but _ befriending the threat _ was not your assigned task.”

Oof. That was rough. You wondered if this was your mother simply being strict, or if something was stressing her more than usual. At the moment, you only really saw her frustrated with monsters acting immaturely, like if they were still in their stripes. Speaking of stripes- where was your little brother? He was supposed to meet you at the end of this meeting, because he wanted to show you some new magic he learned.

You were careful not to show you had switched some of your attention off of the meeting and onto your surroundings. Your brother was a trustworthy monster, and he'd held himself to a high standard of always keeping his words. He often came early to anything because of that, so you expected him to arrive, but sit on the sidelines until the report meeting was over. But you couldn’t see him. Weird. Once the meeting came to an end, Azlan pulled you aside, and you waved off your mother’s raised eyebrow that only you seemed to be able to sense through her helmet. Your mother did her usual exit, melting back into the darkness of Waterfall (_ so dramatic _, this was who your little brother got it from). You only turned back to your friend once you could no longer sense her burning gaze.

“What’s up Az? You look frazzled today. It looks like it’s not just 'cause of your report.”

He picks a fiery orange echo flower and fiddles with it while he addressed you,“Y/n could you please hear me out? I know you’re trained to trap humans, but this is something really important to me-”

“It sounds like you’re about to make me promise to do something not to great for my career Az-” He picks up another flower to fiddle with. This was not looking like a casual, neutral, or friendly conversation anymore.

“Please turn a blind eye. They’re still in stripes and they’ve done nothing but help any they’ve come across in Snowdin. No dust, no fights, they never attack- ever! They’ve lawfully bought food and haven’t even done anything purposefully rude!” He picks up a violet echo flower this time, the first one letting out muffled repetitions of his begging.

You remember that Azlan was good at appealing to all monster’s morals. It was what made you want to keep being friends, and what stopped you from taking down his brother Andrew when he continued to never drop uncomfortable subject. You sighed. You should have known you would have still been easy to persuade after all these years.

“They have only broken the law of existing, which they can’t help. They’ve apologized to any they offend and don’t hold grudges against those who hurt them. They’re clean law-wise. Please?”

The tall grass behind Azlan swished and wrinkled, and the conversation disappeared in favour of investigating whatever made that sound. Your magic silent, but buzzing under your scales at the ready. There was no wind in this part of Waterfall, and only kids hide in the tall grass, unless someone was spying on you. Your mind worked at a mile a minute, while you were excited for something new, but stressed about why someone would hide behind the grass while you and Azlan talked. Would they rat you out to your mother for treason? You knew you didn’t look the part of ‘not considering treason’ in those past few moments.

“It’s rude to eavesdrop. I'd appreciate if you remove yourself from the grass, or I might have to do that myself.” You threatened.

After a moment of hushed whisper-arguing from the grass, out stepped your little brother, Naya, and a human wearing a blue and pink striped shirt, a bandanna and a backpack with a blue rose monster peeking out. At least Naya looked guilty. The human and their flowery companion was hard to read.

“Uhh okay then Y/n… I should probably introduce you to Rosie and Frisk, my new friends and fellow noodle dish fanatic. Please don’t hurt them?” Azlan awkwardly adds another echo flower while he tries to verbally close the new gap that had appeared.

Naya nodded, his striped poncho moving with the aggressive movement, “Please don’t tell mom!”

Today was truly as exciting as you’d hoped, or dreaded it would be. Or maybe you fell asleep on the job, and this was a fever dream.

…

“Alright Naya, so let me get this straight, first, you saw and Rosey and Frisk leaving Snowdin, got curious and then sidetracked followed them around to see what kind of human they were, they found you stalking them, then, you befriended him, like Azlan, who met them in town, tried to fight them, gave up and tried to persuade our mom to reconsider her stance, finally you all teamed up to convince me to not tell mom, or turn you in, and cover you until you get out of Waterfall?” You aren’t sure how you managed to say that all in one breath. Incredible training for battle cries might have contributed?

You almost tore out a scale or five in stress when all three (+flower) heads nodded at your assessment. They just asked the Co-Captain of the Royal Guard to commit treason to the Empress and their family, also asked by part of that family. You knew that if you got busted in the middle of this, you wouldn’t be sure how lenient your mom would be. You would absolutely lose your job and any trust your mother hand in you. You might even be imprisoned for escorting a criminal through the caverns and in the legal sense, forsaking your duties and endangering the citizens of those areas.

The human in stripes, merciful, kind- they had not done anything wrong, or matched the demons we were told the humans were according to Azlan, and vouched for by Naya, and the small flower monster named Rosey. The human who put the spark back in your old friend’s eyes. The human who had not dusted any monsters, including your little brother, guided by Rosey.

“Alright,” You sighed, “I’m in, _ but _ I’m personally getting you to the capital, ‘cause I don’t trust your luck getting another confidential guide, or mom and dad hunting you down when you can’t come up with a good excuse to why you’ve got a new buddy nobody’s seen before suddenly wanting to walk to the other side of our world. Deal?”

Your little brother’s eyes light up, and you could see his magic acting up and making some odd sparkles, “Really?!”

“Yes Naya, now give me a minute to talk with Az before we get going.”

You turned to Azlan, as your two new charges nodded excitedly and rushed off to a clearing nearby, still within your sights.

You couldn’t believe you were doing this, “You look proud.”

He chuckled, “I’m mostly just happy you agreed. I don’t… I don’t want to think later that I might have done nothing to help some poor kid. Even if they don’t make it, at least I wouldn’t feel like I let them die. I know that’s really selfish, but this is the good one. I know he is. I knew you’d see Frisk was worth it.”

Azlan whispered something into his small bundle of flowers, then handed you his collection of fiddle-flora, waved goodbye and returned to Snowdin, saying something about his brother needing help with new puzzle/traps. Poor Lynx never had a break these days.

Once he left, you brought the mini bouquet next to your ear and listened as the glowing plants whispered _ “Stay safe Y/n, we’re all rooting for you, I know you’ll do the right thing.” _

You smiled behind the petals, gently set them into a pocket in your utility belt. Az always knew what to say to motivate you. You could use more of that everyday. Instead of pondering how to get a positive message daily, you walked over to the kids doing some sort of dance in the field.

You called out to them, “Let’s get going! We’ve got to avoid mum’s patrol route, and I think your buddy might want a quick tour while we're at it!"

…

Frisk is a curious one. They ask questions about the different colours of the echo flowers, of your uniform, of Waterfall and Snowdin. And of the Ruins, which were as open as the rest of the ground. You wondered why that surprised Frisk. They ducked into caves, Naya followed, excitedly telling his new friend about the “stars” littered around the higher cave walls and ceilings. Specifically, the wishing room. Filled with the most vibrant echo flowers, other glowing plants and minerals. You answered any questions that Naya couldn’t explain clearly, and you even got a couple jokes from Frisk.

“This was an _ enlightening _ experience.”

“You give some out as prizes for immense improvement to the underground? Do you call these _ constellation prizes _?”

“I think this is the _ star-t _ of a beautiful friendship, Ma’am.” Rosey groaned, apparently not as much a pun enthusiast as the rest of your party.

“Alright kid, just call me Y/n. If you ever meet our mum, call _ her _ Ma’am.”

Naya laughed at that. Your mother was a wonderful monster, but Frisk and Rosey didn’t know that. With your Mum’s heavy, battle scarred armor, glinting green scales, blazing orange eyes and long, bright blue hair. She was so cool, in your opinion. Your brother had those same green-ish teal scales, but lacked the fighting spirit.

He was a healing monster, you could all tell from the day he was born.

…

You chatted with several monsters you passed, a couple asked about Frisk and Rosey, but you introduced Frisk was “Callum” a cousin from the Ruins who’d been kicked out temporary so they could explore their home more. Rosey was a friend from the Ruins who wanted to tag along.

Waterfall's citizens saw Y/n, Naya, Callum and Rosie have a great time touring Waterfall. Callum, asking several questions that most monsters know the answers to. A couple “sheltered monster” jokes were thrown around by friendly citizens, but the facade was flawless. Callum was an oddly fleshy monster with some advanced magic skills, per that “didn’t go out much” mentality.

You had a surprisingly fun time, as you were one of the more friendly patrol guards, and well known as you were Co-Captain. You received lots of “Hey Cap!”s and “Yo CC! Anything new?”s throughout the trip.

“Cap? CC? What does that mean? I thought your mother was the Captain?”

Rosey followed up after Frisk, “Yeah, aren’t you a Sentry buddy of Azlan and Andrew’s? We tried to ask Andrew but he got super grumpy. And Alzan just laughed at us and wouldn’t tell us why. It was weird since he answered so many questions before that.”

Of course Andrew got grumpy at the mention of you. He didn't even bother to hide it in front of his guests. All the more reason you preferred Azlan's company.

Grumpy Lynx brother aside, Naya gave you the Look™ and grinned, “Should I tell them? Or do you want to tell them?

“Uhhh…” You caught the pleading look in your sibling’s eyes and relented, “You can tell them if you’d like?”

Your brother swings back around to your wards, “Alright, so you two, remember when we were squatting in the bushes waiting for Azlan to finish talking to our Mum right?"

Frisk and Rosey nod a confirmation, "Wouldn’t it be weird if a simple Sentry accompanied the Captain to a formal report meeting? It’s odd right?”

“I guess but you’re her kids, maybe she prefers you because she trusts you?”

“Heck I’m not invited at all! But, who would you want with you in an important meeting?” He gives them a moment. Naya’s eyebrows are raised, waiting to see if their mind starts connecting the dots, (they don’t) and his grin grows wider. “If I were Captain of the Royal Guard, I’d want my most trusted Commander to be with me in a meeting. I’d want the Co-Captain of the Royal Guard.”

Frisk and Rosey’s eyes swing back to you, eyeing up your uniform, which was more detailed than the Sentry uniforms. The armored parts were more worn, but still high quality and much less bulky. You didn’t wear a helmet like your mother did, instead you had a peaked cap instead, with a Delta Rune insignia above the brim, as well as a gold feather pin beside it.

There were several badges on your left chest/shoulder area that you saw their eyes catch on. A gold and yellow echo flower badge, a silver and blue rose badge, a red, black and gold badge with a crossed scythe and broadsword, another gold feather pin, a green and silver X badge, a dark gray and silver helmet badge, a golden-amber kite shaped pin, a crocoite orange kite shaped pin, and a lilac shaped kite pin, and two more hidden in the cuffs of your sleeves.

You felt your lips curl up in pride for a moment, when they looked at your honors badges. If they asked you later, you might explain them, but your favourite part, was watching their eyes light up when they put everything together, and you had to monitor your reaction when Rosey’s jaw dropped.

“You’re… You’re the Co-Captain of the Royal Guard Like, second in command?”

You let out a quiet chuckle, confirming their guess, and watched Frisk’s eyes widen in shock and admiration. Which was a first that you’ve seen from him so far. You wondered why they were so surprised, he seemed very observant.

You grinned, "I’m sort of surprised myself, the news didn’t reach you in the Ruins, Rosey, but I guess it would probably be better heard if there was a new captain. But if you’re ever back in the Ruins, you better hear about my promotion one day. I’m going to become Captain one day, I just know it! But for now I’m your escort so we should probably keep going, yeah?"

…

You were getting close to the end of the Waterfall area, luckily without any run-ins with your mother, even past the checkpoint she usually intercepted any suspected criminals on their way out of Waterfall.

Frisk had found a Tutu and ballet slippers in a bush before that, and threw them on because he wanted a change of wardrobe. You didn't blame him, they were in good condition, and looked very flattering on him, which Naya and Rosey agreed with.

He’d been wearing an orange bandanna and had a pink glove too before that. The bandanna with fire prints on it, that he found in Snowdin, and instead of throwing them away, Naya asked for it. He tied the bandanna around his head, mindful of his sharp, but small horns, and put the glove in his bag he hid under his poncho.

Frisk also offered a cute ribbon he’d found in the Ruins, which Naya happily took too, and tied back his long hair, since he’d forgotten to bring a hair tie. Somehow, it pulled his mis-matched look together. You wouldn’t question it, since you were the one who made the matching scarves you both wore (although you kept yours more like a sash around your waist).

You're pretty sure there's a shop coming up soon, where you'll restock your Crab Apple and Sea Tea supplies, as you have a feeling the smooth sailing you've had this far might not last as long beyond your home sector.

“Y/n!”

Your group stops their trek, passing through a more residential area of Waterfall, and you turn to see a ghost monster floating towards your group, smiling at you.

“Lana! Oh my stars girl!" You greeted her.

"Hey, do you think you've got a moment you can drop by? I've got this crazy new batch of songs I think you'll like!"

You turn to "Callum", "Hey dude, do you have a schedule for when you want to move onto Hotland?"

Frisk shakes his head, and you do some mental math that concludes yours required patrol ended about five minutes ago, conveniently leaving you with a moment to listen to your friend's new music.

"Lana!" Naya cheers, rushing forward to give her a hug, but stumbling through her body, because well… Ghost monster, and Naya always forgot she couldn't give hugs until she became corporeal.

"Nice to see you too, kiddo! Who's the new ones?"

You give Frisk and Rosie's standard introduction, and your group continues a little off course to the Blook Residences, where Quincy uses to live as well. When you arrive, Lanablook sheepishly apologizes for not having any solid food for your group to eat, but you laugh it off and tell her that old lady Emry's shop is close by, so you'll just pop in there after for snacks. You had a lot to do in this sector perhaps.

"Here's one song I named Ghost Town Road, and I got a buddy to play that electric guitar we found in the dump last year for the music. I know you're going to love this one!"

She excitedly floats over to Naya, "And I know you're going to like this song, it's called Cemeteries! Apparently that's where humans put their deceased when they dust! Did you know that?"

Humans didn’t dust, their deaths were actually quite messy, but you didn’t bother correcting her. That exchange only serves to excite Naya further. Dark humor runs in your family, although it's not quite as dark as some areas of Waterfall.

Frisk and Rosey already recognized your friend though, and explains they met her in the Ruins, and they talked a bit before she directed him to a bake sale and he hoped to meet her again in _ higher spirits _, as she'd looked a little upset when he first encountered her (cue your group either laughing or groaning in Rosey’s case at the pun).

Then, Lana shows Frisk and Rosey the Blook family tradition, which you and Naya have already been a part of for years, although the incredible display of Ghost Monster magic never ceases to amaze you. The universe of stars and planets that replaces the house around you is the closest thing you have to seeing the real stars, and you aren't surprised that Ghost Monsters qualified as Boss Monster Level with an incredibly beautiful magic like that.

Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and you hesitantly pack up your troup to move on. You spare a regretfully glance at your friend Lana, and she whispers something into your ear, "You're heading to Hotland right? If you do see Quincy, tell him I might him? If that's okay with you?"

You smile sadly back, "Of course. I miss him too. Hopefully I'll get to see Dad again as well."

...

The stop at old lady Emry's shop was quiet and relaxing. The elderly lizard woman offered free cookies to any who helped her restock some shelves that were too high for her to safety reach now, which she would hire some help for later. Needless to say, you jumped at the opportunity for cookies, _ free cookies _ at that. Although you had a bit of unexpected competition from Frisk, and you could see his eyes glinting with Determination to get literal brownie points, and maybe more than you.

You, Co-Captain of the Royal Guard, not to be outdone, threw yourself into that challenge. It ended in a draw, as the higher shelves were restocked, floors dusted, the windows washed, and the counter neatly tidied. For Frisk's and your hard work, most of your supplies you came looking for were free and old lady Emry thanked you profusely, and told Frisk that he was welcome to come back if he ever needed a job and "dedication like that is hard to come by in monsters nowadays! You'd be perfect for the job young man!". And that earned a flustered 'thank you' from your little human friend.

“Oh, I can still remember when your sibling used to challenge me to fight all the time when she was just a tiny little monster, so Y/n could train for the Royal Guard. It was so cute I couldn’t say no!” Emry tells Naya, who’d only been born right before you got out of your stripes.

“What?” You added, “Emry, you’re a war hero! A living _ legend _! You’re the best person I could go to, because there was no way my parents would let me challenge the Empress, besides, my mum was already training with her, I doubted she’d have time for me.”

…

Frisk said he wasn’t into rushing, so you let your three charges wander around a bit, and you four filed down a hallway that would still get you to your next needed turn to keep going. It was normal. Usual. Easy. It was neither of those often constants today. The first of which being the gray monster child who chills the air, by simply existing.

“I fear. One day… I’ll disappear completely. Nobody will remember me, and I’ll cease to exist. If I’m killed enough times… Maybe I really will vanish.”

With that horrifying dialogue, the gray monster child looks to Frisk sadly, as if asking for a favour, or a confirmation. He nods and gives the smaller child a reassuring hug, and Naya hands the monster the pink glove, one you remember Frisk telling you he found in Snowdin, before gifting it to Naya. Then Frisk whispers to the child something you unfortunately didn’t catch.

The monster then smiles, like a final wish had been granted, before looking at the rest of your group and tearfully thanking you, but before they can leave you call for their attention.

“Hey! Wait a sec kiddo. I’ve got something for you too,” you fish through your pockets for a moment before finding what you needed, and passing it to the gray child’s outstretched hands.

A small pin, with a small gold scythe on it. There’s a blue rose where the handle and blade meet, and you offer your most reassuring smile to the child, “I refuse to forget you. Can I have a name to match to your face?”

“Goner... Kid… Actually… Call me… Avner. Remember me as Avner.”

“You will be remembered Avner. I refuse to forget such a wonderful child. Please keep that pin with you. It’ll help you be remembered.”

“Thank you miss. I’ll keep it close to my heart!” Avner clutches your pin close to their chest, smiles at you, and runs down the hall where you came, before vanishing behind a corner they turn.

The second part of the unusual happenings in this corridor, was the gray door. The gray door, that despite walking through this hallway billions, upon billions of times, since Waterfall was your home district and this area was near your residential sector, was never seen by your eyes, ever.

Even Naya comments on it, “That’s odd. I don’t remember that door being there?”

“Let’s go check it out!” Frisk urges.

You don’t stop them (you should have), but you follow them in closer and more tense than you often do when they explore new places. Inside is a dull, unmemorable, gray room. With a monster standing dead center in it.

You froze. You knew who this was, and as horrible feeling flows within you, carried by your on edge magic. This monster hasn’t existed for years. You can’t figure out, for the life of you, why that pattern stops now. Why this monster came back, but not in front of your father, who would be worlds more happy to see him, but you instead, who wanted nothing to do with him. Or his experiments. Any of him, really. 10 years missing, presumed dusted monster, Dr. W.D. Gaster is standing right in front of you, the oldest child to his current successor, Dr. Bryn Draco. The monster who trained your father and taught him everything he knew, before suddenly vanishing from the old caverns of the Underground. The memories you desperately boxed up 9 years ago are coming back in deadly floods as this melting, broken version of the monster you and your father used to idolize stares back at you with a gaze containing curiosity and something you’re far too scared to put into words. He then turns his gaze to Frisk, who stares back with an unreadable, unnaturally neutral face, before Gaster’s shattered grin widens and he vanishes.

Like he was never there.

The heavy, almost unbearable air of the gray room becomes too much for you, and you grab Frisk and Naya’s hands before immediately vacating the room, barely keeping your magic from forcing you to flat out sprint, which would be far to fast for your entourage. Running at your top speed might hurt them. You locked down your screaming nerves, and power walked out of the gray room. The gray room, with the gray door. The gray door that sucked and folded into and on itself once you left. Also removing itself from existence.

Stars, you hated this hallway now. Naya couldn’t understand why that hit you so hard. You couldn’t even find the strength to stop shaking until you accidentally wandered into Temmie Village. A small, and by small you meant _ absolutely minuscule _, even by Underground town standards.

“Hey… This is such a small area. Maybe we should just help Temmie out a bit and pay for them to go to college. This place could finally pick itself up off the floor and become a flourishing shop. Please Y/n? I’ll help with what I can pay too!” Frisk urged.

You weren’t hard to persuade. Temmie went to college, but left their continuously laughing face behind. Creepy. But Temmie came back to reclaim their face, and with better products. Like decently priced bandages and less Temmie flakes. You bought lots of bandages to make up for all the money you spent of Temmie’s college fund. (Oh stars, so many bandages)

...

On the way out of Waterfall, you made a quick stop at _ your own _ house. You dropped off some of your bulkier armor and switched it out for lighter, more breathable guards and your long coat out for a bolero jacket, because even you, half Hotland monster, still got a little warm when you visited sometimes. You were better suited to the cold and/or wet, like Snowdin and Waterfall, while your brother took the heat no problem, keeping his poncho and scarf on in _ lava filled _ Hotland without even blinking an eye, but suffered in the cold, and only came to Snowdin when he absolutely had to, usually glued to a fire monster's leg or body the entire time, usually you.

Then you find an extra pin you’ve saved from a small batch of ten -which not including this one, was more like a batch of seven now- a small gold scythe, with a blue rose where the handle and blade meet, and you give it to Frisk. You’d planned to give the one you had in your pocket to them earlier, but you’d found a better use for it before that, so you decided to grab another.

“This is a Ward pin. It shows that you’re a ward of a Royal Guardsmonster, specifically me, so if anyone gets aggressive with you show them the pin and they should back off, if not, it’ll bump your defense up a lot so you’ll be safe, assuming that we get separated for some reason, until I get there to help you. Naya has two, one from me, and one from my mother. Just being around Naya at this point is protection.”

Naya turns to Rosey and Frisk and shows them the two pins magically fastened to his poncho, one matching the one you gave to Frisk, and another was a silver glaive with a purple echo flower and blue rose decorating the staff.

“The pin also gives you the ability to set off a traceable magic signal for me. It’s hard to explain, but it’s sort of a ‘feeling’ you get whenever you feel like you need it. You’ll figure it out.” You add after Naya finished showing Frisk his pins.

You continue looking for supplies you might need, extra G, extra food, for hunger or injuries, bandages, a water bottle, and you remind Naya to grab one too. All of your items you put into your item boxes your father installed onto your phone, as well as Naya’s phone. You check Frisk’s phone. Modern-ish for monsters, but not magic inclusive. Frisk has a couple monster’s numbers: Azlan’s, Andrew’s, Naya’s, Princess Athena’s? Whoa. You sort of saw the sense. She’s a motherly monster, and Frisk had mentioned she’d let him stay for a while before he decided to leave, and during his stay she’d given him her number in case he got into trouble. But since his phone was not magic inclusive, it was a bit of a 50/50 on whether or not his calls would go through, or if someone else’s would if you weren’t in the same sector. Maybe a stop by your father’s Lab was due, for Frisk and Rosey’s sake.

You add your own phone number to his contacts as **Dragon Lady (Y/n)** and continue grabbing what you need while you’re here, including switching out your uniform black turtleneck for a black tank top, exchanging your heavy duty work boots for some well worn hiking boots, and offering Rosey some magic infused water that wouldn't evaporate on entry to Hotland, because that would likely affect the poor flower more than the three of you bigger monsters. You also change from your work pants to light cargo shorts.

You tell everyone the general plan while you're stopped at your house. You’ll take them through a shortcut to the elevator to the Core, then through there, another to the Capital. Unless some of those shortcuts were blocked by guards and they might have to make a detour. No one was surprised when your first route was blocked by guards who apologized when they couldn't move unless your mother herself came and commanded them otherwise.

Detour through the Lab it was then. That was alright with you, and Frisk had that curious look on his face again. Great time to ask your dad to help them upgrade their phone, since you were okay with monster tech, but didn’t have the supplies and higher know-how that your father did.

It was oddly dark, which didn’t hinder you and Naya much, as you’d both grown up in the darkest district of the Underground, you saw just fine. Frisk was stumbling through, running into a box or two, prompting Naya to stick close to him and guide him. You briefly wondered if your father was out today, before the lights snapped back on, causing you to flinch in shock. Only to hear "SURPRISE!" and your Dad and QuincyBot leap out from behind a wall.

"Daddy!" Naya yelled, and this time successfully, ran and got a hug from your father.

Then QuincyBot noticed your friends, "Uhh I didn't know we had extra guests? Why didn't we see you guys on the cameras?"

Another round of introductions were due, "Dad this is-"

"A human! And… uh miss have we met before?" No use lying about his name anymore. And you weren't sure what to think about your dad's comment to Rosey, but continued introductions.

"Sorry Dad, I may or may not have _stood in front of every camera we came across because we didn't want you to know about our new friends_…" Naya word vomits.

"Dad, QuincyBot, this is Frisk and Rosey. Rosey and Frisk, meet Naya and I's dad, and my old friend, and the Underground’s biggest performing TV star, QuincyBot."

You had an awkward silence for a moment. Between Naya's half admittance of video interference, the fact that the Royal Scientist now had a human in his lab, plus the Underground's biggest performing arts star were all gathered in one room, with the Co-Captain Of The Royal Guard.

"Well this poses an issue," QuincyBot began, "my lovely viewers are 100% sure you've reached my area by now, and I can't just let you pass through without any appearance of consequence on mine, or Dr. Bryn’s part. It would make the Empress suspicious of us, and I can’t let my fans down. I'll level with you, Human. I'm not into murder, just the drama stuff.”

Then you had a brilliant idea, “QuincyBot, Dad, is it alright if I ask a favour of you?"

…

That's how you and Naya ended up backstage while Frisk was instructed on the upcoming ‘Challenge’ they would be pitted into, against some sort of peril QuincyBot made up for them, with occasional intervention by your father playing Man In The Chair, a trope you'd seen from movies Naya found in the Trash Dump for you two to watch when you were younger.

It had been agreed upon, that, to keep the Underground from revolting at their Star not fighting the human, they would act it out, and with special effects, make it look like Frisk was taking a beating (but really just had small makeup packets stored on their body that painted their skin purple and green and red whenever they were hit, and Frisk played up their injuries, until they finally overcome whatever challenge QuincyBot set), and QuincyBot was ‘fighting’ them with a dramatic flare.

The plan was, knowing how an audience worked, they love a good underdog, and would cheer for Frisk and Rosey if they were portrayed as disadvantaged, but powering through it, so that the hostility from the Underground citizens would lessen up on him because of the empathy gained, also allowing Dr. Bryn to show his competency as the Royal Scientist. Then QuincyBot and your father, Dr. Bryn, didn't lose their jobs.

...

The first task was bomb themed, although for shock factor, started as a reporting episode, Frisk as a newly hired reporter for QuincyBot. Frisk and Rosey did super well, and played it just enough that they didn’t have enough time to get to the last bomb, and ‘suddenly’ Dr. Bryn swooped in to hack the bomb and disable it, saving the small monster and human’s life! What a twist! You tuned into the live statistics, and the ratings were high and positive.

Even when you knew what was happening, you still felt on the edge of your seat, watching the events. Frisk was a spectacular actor, you could see the tension and stress just from the stiffness and shaking of his movements. Rosey was even fidgeting on screen too, playing up the supportive, but not physically strong character.

Soon the filming was over, and that episode was concluded, Frisk washed the makeup off, and Naya **[*CHECK]**ed him for actual injuries sustained, as sometimes there were accidents on set that were easily played off in a situation like this. After a clean diagnosis of “let’s get you some water before you dry out”, Frisk was deemed fine by Naya.

....

While your group was at the Lab, your father upgraded Frisk’s phone to monster standards and magic inclusive, as well as showing him the UnderNet app that connected Frisk to the Underground’s primary social media. You’ve never seen a kid so amazed by tech, and your father is soaking up the praise like a sponge monster in Waterfall. The contacts Smartypants (your father) and QuincyStar (obviously QuincyBot) also found their way onto the device.

QuincyBot approached your group while his robotic film crew packed up the set, “Great job Frisk! It really felt like an action show! And_ I knew what was going on _! Have you considered a career in acting?”

Frisk shrugs and he tells QuincyBot he’s got a friend Topside who wants an acting job, so when he breaks them out, QuincyBot could meet him, specifically, “He’s stuck at a dead end job saving up for college classes right now, but I have a feeling you two’d get along.”

That was the first time Frisk had spoken about _ helping _ them reach the surface. The base plan here had been to help Frisk escape the Underground. Human souls could cross the Barrier no problemo, but for a monster to cross, they needed a Human soul partner or acquired Soul.

Were you +the entire Underground going to say no to an offer to free you from the caverns though? Stars no. You can see Quincy’s screen eyes figuratively light up, along with Naya’s, and you remember Azlan’s echo flowers, which you set in a vase full of water when you made a stop at your house._ “Stay safe Y/n, we’re all rooting for you, I know you’ll do the right thing.” _

This was going to get them free. You could feel Hope rising in your Soul, for the first time in years. That warm excitement in your chest that you’d lost since your stripes years. A feeling you’d seen Naya radiating, and had fed off of for years, to keep you going. You could see it in your mother’s eyes too, that she did the same.

…

Hotland was full of puzzles, mostly conveyor belts and steam vents that threw monsters from platform to platform. Naya saw fun instead of puzzles, so he happily took running starts at the steam vents to launch himself faster, which you also started doing, soon followed by Frisk and Rosey.

Rosey has this awed, nostalgic look on her face while she and Frisk launch through the air. You notice it change to a sadder longing look she shakes off almost immediately after it appears. You wondered why it looked like Rosey hadn’t seen Hotland in forever. She was allowed to leave the Ruins whenever she pleased, and decided to leave with Frisk.

Maybe Rosey had nowhere left to come back to.

…

All. The. Short. Cuts. Were. Blocked.

That, you found, was quite frustrating, like all the puzzles in that area were either on the fritz or very time consuming, or there were guards roaming the area you had to low-key redirect and throw off their scent on Frisk and Rosey, who you quickly found new clothes for after the first QuincyBot Episode featuring them aired. Namely, you bought a faded purple and yellow striped t-shirt and sports shorts, plus a veiled hat often used by shy monsters to cover up and it was enchanted to keep heat out.

You were lucky you had all of the Underground mapped out in your head. Most monsters only knew the main routes and still had to guesswork the puzzles. Although you didn’t know what was in every room, you did know the answers to all the puzzles, and enough to sidestep some others. Your mother had drilled the paths into your brain once you achieved Second-Captain status three years ago.

The next task came soon after, being a Quiz Show of odd, QuincyBot centered questions, which from the sidelines, if Frisk forgot a line, you and Naya used magic bullets to make patterns in the shape of the answers. You saw Rosey sneaking looks at you guys on the sidelines whenever the cameras weren’t on her and smothering a laugh at your antics. You had to give an A+ to QuincyBot for keeping his screen for a face carefully unseeing to your massive, give-away hints.

Frisk, aided by off-screen help and calls from Dr. Bryn, passed with flying colours, much to QuincyBot’s “frustration”, and the entertainment of the viewers, as shown by the ratings.

At the end of this challenge, you pull QuincyBot aside while Naya pulls Rosey and Frisk off for their after-challenge-check up.

“I missed you, dork.” And you give him a hug you’ve been waiting to do for a year, since he left to become a star.

“I know, I’m sorry I couldn’t visit. How’s Lana?” He mumbled dejectedly.

“She’s lonely. But she’s making incredible music now. You should bring her up to make your show’s new music, and then you can hang out together. You know the robots aren’t doing so great at tune making.”

“Maybe I should. I bet she’d make an incredible new soundtrack.”

…

You stumble upon an apron and frying pan along the way, which Frisk keep, and discards his tutu into his inventory phone space, where the ballet shoes already resided, since they didn’t fit quite right. QuincyBot did mention a cooking episode would be up soon.

…

Soon was now, as you stood in the empty, designated audience area, standing with your little brother, ready to silently cheer on your little friends.

“Welcome to Cooking with a Killer Robot! Starring your favourite Robotic monster, QuincyBot! And! Our newest guest star, our very own fallen human and Rosey! Say hello to the camera Darlings!”

Frisk and Rosey waved a greeting to the camera, their signature greeting, usually a very shy one on Rosey’s part. Although this time, unlike their usual routine, Frisk throws in a slightly flirtatious wink, and you hear QuincyBot cheer a supporting “Ooooh saucy, Darling!”

The show continues, with QuincyBot sending Frisk off to retrieve the ingredients needed, but suddenly gearing up to _ cook Frisk’s Soul into a cake _ , since a Soul was the last ingredient. Oh boy did QuincyBot decide to dial up the faux stakes here. Frisk is about to be diced up by QuincyBot’s ** _Chainsaw_ ** when your father, the ever well timed doctor calls in to ask about a substitute for Human Soul Flavoring, in case of veganism.

“A truly wonderful recipe is a recipe that can be easily altered to fit any dietary lifestyle! It’s what your fans want!” Your father exclaimed.

The ratings jumped, which backed up the doctor’s point, “forcing” QuincyBot to reconsider his options and send Frisk off instead to retrieve the Soul flavoring, although under a time limit. On top of a billion stacked drawers. With falling obstacles. What a challenge this was!

Dr. Bryn called Frisk to instruct him on how to use the _jet pack_ function he installed on his phone beforehand. You only found out in the briefing that Frisk’s phone had a jet pack app feature. And _oh boy_ was it a funny episode: Rosey screaming the entire ride up to find the flavour, Frisk getting hit with falling flour, milk and eggs. His dismayed expression when QuincyBot revealed that the cake had already been made and that they didn’t actually need the flavoring and now that they were out of time, this was the end of this episode.

As soon as the episode ended, Frisk broke out in laughter and asked to see the recording. He laughed even harder when he saw the utterly done look he’d pulled off at the end of the show, covered in flour, milk and eggs, as well as a distressed Rosey muttering about “Flour on a Flower isn’t funny”. After you all finished laughing, you took Frisk and Rosey to go get cleaned up, then came Naya’s usual health check. Your group took this break to receive passes to QuincyBot’s Restaurant/Hotel, where he, in thanks for playing along, would get you guys free rooms so you could finally crash. You guys all had a snack and water break while you were finally not in direct danger of being attacked.

“Ya know,” Frisk speaks up, “The flavour can… It was stuck to the top of the counter. Even if this wasn’t rigged. I wouldn’t have been able to retrieve it.”

“Oof.” Naya commented.

…

Hotland isn’t quite a _ dark _ place. It's hot and lit up with magma and the Core, instead of the soft, luminescent flora and water of Waterfall. But there are certainly rooms that are darker than most, as they are caves, without light and magma.

Heck, you’ve pointed the Core out to your following when you passed an open enough space to see all of it. You would have pointed out the Castle view to Frisk as well, but that area is before where you two met, so you can assume Naya probably already pointed it all out, and likely grabbed umbrellas too. It’s one of the few places in Waterfall that’s almost sunrise-like in ambiance.

Unlike this dark, high ceilinged room. Once again, your brother partners up with Frisk and Rosey to guide them. You can see Naya’s green and blue eyes glowing in the dark with coloured magic. Your own glow orange and gold. And you begin to notice that this room is more like one long bridge down a hall, with dark, deep pits lining the left and right, containing something oddly not-fiery. Webs. Spider Webs. Filling the pit, covering the walls and littering the walkway your troop had to stumble through- well, _ Frisk _ had to stumble through- while Naya became a main support (when you grow up in the darkest District of the Underground you get good night vision), holding him up, and making verbal note of all the odd webs he could see.

The webs. Frisk tensed up, “There wouldn’t happen to be a spider monster in this particularly dark and difficult to escape area, would there?”

That begins to jog your memory, prompting you to remember the room’s title: The Spider Room.

“Naya we’re going to have company-” The skittering of billions of spiders and the excited laughing of the inhabitants of the Spider Room cut you off. The high squealing sound of restless spider monsters fills the room, and you see Naya shuffling nervously, clinging to Frisk’s arm. Rosey is getting flighty too.

“Y/n what does that mean? What’s that noise? What’s going on?”

You scan your memory of first seeing this room, and the Boss Monster who lived in it.

...

“Hunter. Can you turn on some lights please? My bullets aren’t that bright, and I don’t want anyone to get hurt.”

You saw Hunter, the Spider Boss Monster, rising up from the pit, from a sturdy rope made of spider silk that was attached to… Somewhere on the top of the cavern. Once he reaches the level of the bridge, he gracefully steps on and eyes up your crowd (with all eight of his eyes), finally landing on you, his four tailed scarf swishing behind him, like another four spider legs (or is it arms? You weren’t all that sure). A sharp, toothy grin spreads across his face, and the sight of it makes your eyebrow twitch in annoyance.

He should not be _ that happy _ to see you, “Y/n, it’s been so long, my love. Why haven’t you come visit me? Have you forgotten what we had, dear? Why did you leave me behind?”

“Y/n… Have you been hiding a secret boyfriend from me?!” Naya accused.

“What? No! Why the stars would I do that Naya? He’s just messing around!”

“No, my dear! My eight eyes are only for you, I swear! Why must you hurt me so?”

Your nose wrinkled in distaste, and you grabbed Naya’s hand and pulled him forward, down the hall, “Maybe later Hunter, we’ve got to get going, and I’ve got work to do. Later spider.”

You trudge on, as the webs pile up the further you get down the bridge-hall, soon it’s a little about your thigh level, and just around Frisk’s stomach level, and mid torso level for poor Naya, the webs are sticking to everyone’s legs and slowly weighing them down. You are doing fairly well, as you’re used to wearing weighty armor, but eventually Frisk couldn’t keep moving, much to his frustration.

“How unfortunate! Your friend has gotten a tiny bit stuck! I guess you’ll be staying a bit longer!” Hunter calls from his rope of webbing hanging beside your group, dangling over the pit.

You breathe a quiet sigh of annoyance and awkwardly shuffle around to look at Frisk and asses how to fix the situation, “How much do you like fire, Frisk? I can burn the webs away from you guys and keep it going without spreading through the cavern until the end, but some monsters severely fear fire, even if it can’t hurt them, and I don’t want you to be scared. Will this plan work with you?”

He nods and smiles a “go ahead” to you. You reach out your hand to the webs surrounding your party, but just before you can call your magic to light them, a MASSIVE SPIDER MONSTER drops from the cavern ceiling, grabbing Naya, Frisk, and by proxy, Rosey, who screeches at the top of her metaphorical lungs when their kidnapper springs back up, heading towards the walls. Your magic courses through you carrying disbelief, frustration, rage, concern, and a little bit of fear because _ he’s got your friends and family member in the jaws of his huge pet spider _. You turn to look at Hunter with a wide eyed “What The Hell Man?” look on your face. He simply winks at you, before turning his attention to your captive assembly.

“My goodness? Is that a _ Human _ you brought with you? How unlike you Y/n!”

“Nope, that’s Callum, _ Hunter _, he’s from the Ruins and we’re in charge of him, so I politely suggest you put my brother and my friends down before I take matters into my own hands.”

“What are you doing to do my love? I think your best option is to just sit and talk in my parlor. I have Spider Cider and my lovely pastries I know you love. Why don’t you let them play with my pet for a bit, I promise it’s all fun and games.”

You scowl and shout to your strung up company, “Give me a second, I’ll get you down from there in a moment!”

You launch two Blue magic bullets at the cocoons, successfully turning your brother and Frisk’s Souls blue, then call out to them again, “You’re blue now! Just stay still and I’ll get you down no problem!”

Then you send a fire bullet their way. Hot enough to burn the silk away, but only hot enough to pleasantly tingle on a living being’s body. You rally a wall of Blue attacks behind you and above you, so that Hunter and his pet, who skittered off in fear of the fire, can’t interfere with your recon mission.

“Hunter. I know you want company. But holding my people hostage to make me stay, doesn’t make this better for you. I remember when we first met. You were charming, and kind, and helpful. That’s the Hunter that brings people together. Not the deceitful one that traps and separates. So when I come back to visit you, I better see a change, or I’ll be properly mad at you, and my brother gets to decide what your punishment for aggression against Ward monsters is.”

“But that human hates spiders! He tears their legs off! He steps on them and crushes them without remorse! Why are you siding with that maniac? I thought we had an understanding- Boss monster to Boss monster, Y/n!”

Frisk, Rosey and Naya are now free of the Spider silk, so you move them back down to the bridge, and Frisk grabs a Spider Doughnut from his phone space box, and takes some bites (you can’t blame him, those stuff are the bomb).

“Don’t you see! He’s a little thief too! He deserves a round with my pet-”

Some smaller spiders with a note run into the hall, squeaking with urgency.

“Telegraph?” Hunter guesses, before picking up the note and skimming it, “Ah… Oh I see then. My apologies, Y/n and associates, you are not traveling with a spider hating human after all. This note confirms you _ love _ spiders quite a bit! You bought so much from our Ruins bake sale unit that they had to close for the day to make more food. I’m terribly sorry for the misunderstanding. There must be some other spider hating human wandering around here.”

“I can’t even anymore…” You grumbled.

“As a peace offering, please take these free Spider Doughnuts as a form of my apologies, and that I hope we get off on a better foot in the future. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions Y/n.”

“Don’t apologize to me, Spider! Say that to my brother and my friends, who you set your huge pet on based on a rumor!”

“Sorry.” He didn’t even bother to try and sound guilty.

“Are you kidding me?!” Annnnd that’s another couple scales torn out from stress.

…

You and your posse leave the Spider Room in one piece, although you are angrily munching on one of your free Spider Doughnuts from Hunter.

“I cannot _ believe _ … sometimes… the _ audacity _… stars above…” You grumble.

Frisk snaps you out of your brooding with a question, “What did Hunter mean when he said Boss Monsters? And he called you one too.”

“Uh, I guess the best way to put it is usually certain monster families are stronger than others, or some monsters are just very powerful compared to others. We call those monsters Boss Monsters, fore their high Hope and usually magical advancement. Our parents are both Boss Monsters believe it or not. By the genetic factor, and proven by tests, Naya and I are both Boss Monsters.”

“Yeah! I’m the youngest Boss Monster in the entire Underground! I’m so good at healing magic that I can sense injuries on people within a radius of me, which is why I check you instead of Y/n. Y/n is pretty good for someone who’s base magic isn’t a green type, but she does her best.”

“Base magic?”

Instead, Rosey answers this time, “Base magic is the magic type you possess as a monster since birth. It’s the magic that comes easiest to you, and it relates to the three main Soul traits you have. For example, Naya’s main Soul traits are Patience, teal, Perseverance, purple, and Kindness, green. Naya’s incredibly skilled in Blue, maybe orange magic too, purple magic, which is a limiting magic, depending on usage, and green magic. Blue is a gravity and movement based magic. Orange is also a movement based magic type that often accompanies Blue magic. Green magic is healing type magic, or it provides some sort of power up, depending on usage.”

“Dang that’s cool! What about you, Y/n?”

“Uhhhh… What were mine again… Pretty sure my main Soul traits are Justice, yellow, Integrity, indigo, and Bravery, orange. I’ve got Blue magic, Orange magic, Fire magic, a little bit of Healing, but that was a learned one, but most of my magic is really just a lot of attack type magics. I’m still figuring things out.”

“Magic stuff aside, I see the Hotel!” Naya interjects.

Finally. This called for the longest nap of your life.


	2. Abyss Below

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> You love naps, but this one is forcing you to remember things you wished you didn't. The end is drawing near to your group's time on QuincyBot's show. Some shady back alley girls sell your friends a gun of all things, which you confiscate, and you begin to wonder why your Dad has dropped off the radar. He doesn't pick up your calls, or see your texts. He's vanished from the show, and that includes his duties to repair puzzles in sectors. When you called him to ask him about the dysfunctional elevators and puzzles littering Hotland, he still doesn't pick up, even when you leave a voicemail. When he finally calls you back, you realize that something isn't adding up right and your group returns to the Lab, only to discover he's not there. Neither is Quincy. You only have one place you think he might be. And you don't like it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Did I watch a bunch of videos to get the layout description? Maybe.  
Am I putting the children through too much angst? absolutely.  
Will I stop? lmao no.
> 
> P.S Auto checker stop underlining my words with red. I'm going to spell COLOUR and FLAVOUR with an OU and you can't stop me.

You can stare into an abyss, the abyss usually stares back, but this time it gave you answers. You watch the monster, the machine, the shattering. You’ve seen it all before, of course, but it’s been a little longer than a decade since the event and years since you buried it all away in your own mind.

You watch a child, with your gold and red scales and the smallest of horns visible through her messy hair, tiptoeing down the dark hall. Inside the room at the end, there’s your father and another monster talking, almost arguing in front of a red machine that looks like an animal’s skull. Your mother was having a baby today, so you were with your father, but he couldn’t take a day off of work, so you came with him to the Lab. He said he wanted to create a bring your child to work day so you two could do this more often. You loved the lab, you just wished there was more you could do.

Like play. Today was a spying mission, because you were curious to where your father kept going with Uncle Wings. You carefully peeked around the corner of the entrance to the room and watched as the two monsters in the room talked.

“Gaster I can’t let you do this! We don’t know if this is safe! What if it dusts you! Or blows up! We can find a different subject, please don’t test it on yourself though!”

Were Dad and Uncle Wings arguing? Why would they do that? You thought they were best friends?

The taller man sighs before pushing a button that triggered a camera to begin recording, and starts to speak, “Entry number 17. Dark, darker, yet darker. The darkness keeps growing, the shadows cutting deeper. Photon readings negative. This next experiment seems very, very… Interesting. What do you two think?”

Click. The recorder turns off at the push of a button. You know Uncle Wings had a passion for drama and cryptic messages. It was why you loved his puzzles so much.

The monster who just spoke turns around and looks you in the eyes, breaking you out of your thoughts, “What do you think, little one?”

…

You can’t tell what explodes first: the machine, or the monster.

You hear your father scream your name, but beyond that, everything else feels distorted, like trying to hear a conversation under water. You watch as Uncle Wings is engulfed directly by the explosion and he _ breaks _ . <strike>He shatters.</strike> Two shards hit you, one in the hip, the other in the chest and you topple over from the impact. You see hundreds of other shards of the destroyed Dr. Gaster fly through the room, melting holes in the walls and vacating the room at the speed of bullets. You know for sure where one shard went, but the monster it hit was too young to understand what it meant, so it wasn’t questioned. You never found the rest.

Dark, darker, yet darker.

He’s still watching you.

<strike>But who isn’t he watching?</strike>

…

You open your eyes. Your face feels for, but your body is cold. You feel like you just slept off a fever, but you don’t don’t feel… rested. You're overheating and oddly cold at the same time. Usually you wake up from nightmares like you do when you wake up before your alarm clock, but more sad.

Whatever this feeling was, was far more exhausting. <strike>You wonder if Avner has ever felt like this.</strike> Instead of focusing on the dread that floated with your magic, you took a moment to look around you. At… QuincyBot’s Hotel. You were in a hotel room. You were lying on a bed. That’s right. He let you guys stay as a thank you, and you got a connected room to Frisk and Naya’s. Rosey was in your room, still sleeping. Hotel restaurant. Your room has pastel blue walls, with a blue, swirl covered carpet. You remember being given a set of pajamas to wear while your other clothes were washed, said clothes you could see in a basket by the door to your room, neatly folded with a note placed on top of the pile.

Breathe in, breathe out. You have a black discoloration on a patch of scales on your hip. You have a black discoloration on a patch of scales on your chest. Neither places hurt, or flake easily, it’s just weird. Naya has a patch like that on his shoulder He’s had it since the day he was born. You’ve had it for… 10 years turning 11. You both have them. Only your father knows why- _maybe_. He told your mother it was birthmarks. They run in his family. She can’t remember them, but she trusts him. She does not question the black scales. You’ve learned not to question them, it makes your dad scared. You could only speak nonsense to a baby, until you finally just blocked it all out, and the nightmares stopped.

You cautiously slid off the bed, onto your own feet and walked over to the laundry basket, picking up the note.

{ Hi Y/n! You were sleeping when your clothing finished being washed, so we left them in your room. I wish you luck in the rest of your journey to the Capital!

-QuincyBot }

There’s a knock on the shared door connecting your room to the boy’s room. You put the note back down into the basket and walk over and open your connecting door. On the other side is a proud looking Frisk, handing you food, asking if they can come in, so that everyone could eat together. You let them in and noticed the two boys had a _ lot of food _.

“Where’d you get this food from?”

“I helped with a bit of room service and bought food with the tips I got. The cashier is a really nice guy. It’s too bad he’s so stressed. He’s just like the friend I mentioned before, on the surface. They’d probably get along.”

“Yeah, Adrian had some cool stories though. It’s both funny and unfortunate that everyone calls him Burgerpants.”

“Oh you guys meet Adrian. I went to school with him. Nice guy.”

“We also saw Andrew again, he told us he wanted to talk and told Frisk that the only reason he didn’t kill him on sight was because of a promise he made to a lady in the Ruins. It was really mean of him. I see why you don’t like him, Y/n.” You brother confides, “but we did speak to some nice girls in an alleyway!”

“Wait, hold up. What did Andrew say to you? The closest thing you can tell me he said.”

Frisk makes an overdone mad face and comically deepens his voice, “If it weren’t for my promise to the old lady, _ y o u ‘ d b e d e a d w h e r e y o u s t a n d _ .”

Naya chimes in his own part, “And then he told me I should 'get far away from Frisk if I didn’t want to get hurt.' Bold words from a monster who knows my mother is Captain of the Guards, and my sister is second Captain.”

“I can see him doing that,” You sighed, “I’m going to kick his butt into next Wednesday when I see him next… I’m sorry you two had to listen to that garbage. He usually _ tries _ to be civil with others.”

“Welp, I’ve got better news. Look what we found Y/n!” Your brother hands you a cowboy hat and a _ gun _.

You suddenly were much more awake than before, “Oh my stars Naya! Why _in the name of the Empress_ do you have a gun?”

“Because I can? The girls didn’t really have a policy on who bought their stuff as long as they paid.”

You can’t tell if you should be responsible and scold them for buying a gun. You tell Naya to hand over the gun, which you check (it’s empty, and monster modified, it’s a human made gun but it runs on magic bullets), or if you should laugh because two kids bought a gun and a cowboy hat because they could, and the alleyway girls just handed children a weapon.

“The gun is mine now. I’m the only one here who knows how to use it. I’m not giving two people in stripes a gun.” You put the gun in your own inventory box.

What a morning. You called Azlan and ratted his brother out because _ nobody _ threatens your charges without repercussions. You heard Azlan’s tone get tense over the phone and just before he hung up, he heard him find his brother and Andrew freak out. What a good friend Azlan was.

…

After you finish your group breakfast you kick the boys back out into their rooms while you all change into your newly washed clothing and freshen up for the day. This time, you left your jacket in your inventory, because the Core was hotter than you wanted to be caught wearing sleeves in. Naya kept his poncho though. Sometimes you wonder if he has ice magic tucked away in there somewhere.

…

You packed up your rooms, Rosey riding on your shoulder until she moved back to Frisk's backpack, and returned your keys to Adrian, who you offered a cheerful greeting and a smile. You left, and made your way through the Core since the elevators were on the fritz today, like many of the puzzles. You couldn’t shake a feeling of dread that had settled in your gut. You could tell Naya was a bit on edge too. He kept rubbing his shoulder and fidgeting.

You called your father to report it, but his phone sent you to voicemail. “Hey Dad, a bunch of puzzles and elevators are acting up. Maybe you should come check them out before something happens. Call me back...”

Click. How disheartening. He always answers your’s and Naya’s calls.

You pushed onwards, nonetheless, telling funny high school stories you have or family history, all the way to the last challenge room area. This was the last event before QuincyBot and your own Rosey-Frisk-Team-Up had the “face off”/”last battle” episode filmed. He was running for tension and drama points this time.

This challenge, Frisk would star in a short musical, titled Undertale: A Musical, before being dropped into a puzzle (he’d seen it before, in Snowdin, so don’t worry), with coloured tiles with meaning, like the green ones Frisk desperately avoided. That tile called a monster forward for Frisk to fight, so while they sprinted through the puzzle, with occasional soap slides and electrical tiles, he avoided green like the plague. QuincyBot was ‘disappointed’ Frisk didn’t hit a green tile, but told the camera that, “no worries viewers, your darling Star, moi, will return in one more episode with our human special guest! So stay tuned!”

The ratings just kept jumping. This last episode had better be a good season’s ending or the fans would riot. You know everyone does not like a riot. Especially in a cavern, with broken elevators and puzzles.

You noticed your father didn’t make an appearance at all in this episode. Where was he?

…

You loved the Core. You really did, for all the power it brought to the Underground, and because you used to admire the designer, stars, your father still does <strike>maybe that was more admiration, than love</strike> It had been the most difficult part of the Underground your mother required you to memorize. Who needed a giant machine to have hallways and sub-levels so confusing? Nobody, in your opinion (at least you didn’t have to memorize the full Ruins and castle layout too). You still managed to get your party through the maze the monsters called the Core, and directly to the room QuincyBot reserved for their last fight. Although, this time it would be different. There was actually a higher chance of both parties getting injured, so you and Naya would both be providing support magic throughout the episode, either by sending in random healing bullets, or throwing in healing items like food or some of the billions of bandages you bought from Temmie.

QuincyBot also wanted to keep his viewers focus on him so they wouldn’t notice how co-ordinated the episode was (the slight discolorations on the floor that Frisk always tripped or tumbled on, to the lack of blood spilt by Frisk when they got hit with a laser), so he got a last minute body upgrade from Dr. Bryn. It was a sleeker, more human shaped body in comparison to the boxy, un-stylistic body your father first made. The ratings _ skyrocketed _ at the appearance, once Frisk flicked an oddly large switch on QuincyBot’s back (it was planned before, but to viewers it looked like curiosity). The sight of the ratings motivated Frisk and QuincyBot to make this the best episode the Underground had ever seen.

What the audience at home didn’t know, was that QuincyBot’s limbs were detachable at will, so while Frisk attacked and reached a certain point of “damage”, QuincyBot would drop a limb and act more aloof, until after he ran out of arms and the first leg came off. His composure turned to urgency and frustration. Soon that turned to false bravado and QuincyBot called for audience participation.

“Well viewers, since I’m going to take the human’s Soul and move Topside to continue my career, I’ll be taking in callers before I leave, as this is a special episode! Taking audience callers… Now!”

“Hi QuincyBot! We all love you and your daily episodes really brighten our day! We’ll miss you dearly!”

“QuincyBot! Please don’t go! You’ll leave a robot shaped hole in our robot shaped hearts!”

“QuincyBot, your fan club will miss our inspiration 100%! Please blow away the humans just as well as you did for us!”

“This episode was so cool! Will you come visit us once you reach Topside? I don’t want to be lonely!”

“Hi… Quin… It’s been a while.”

“Lana?” Quincy asked, oddly quiet for the grandiose Star.

“Yeah. You haven’t really visited in a while, and I miss you, but I’m also really happy for you, because you worked really hard for this and I hope you enjoy the surface.”

“Wait Lana-”

Click.

It hits you. Quincy didn’t tell Lana about this plan of his. You can imagine her, sitting in her house right now, watching Frisk, likely about to die, but also her closest family member about to leave her behind. You know she’s an excellent actor, and can talk through tears, so no matter how calm she sounded on that call, she’s probably breaking down right now. Or, at least devastated at the news.

It makes the sound of the Click all the more heartbreaking.The stage is silent for a moment, before QuincyBot forces words out of his body, “Well, I guess that’s all the callers I’ll be taking. And now that I see it from your perspective, viewers, I think you need me more than the humans do… So perhaps I’ll stay a little longer! Goodnight and goodbye lovely audience! I’ll see you next episode on the Quincy Channel!”

The cameras cut off, the credits roll, and the comment section for the Channel is in an _ uproar _. There’s tears, joy, celebration and praise all throughout the comments and you think, personally, that Frisk, Rosey and QuincyBot did in fact, make an incredible season finale in this episode. There’s a strong sense of closure that came from this episode too.

You and Naya come running off the sidelines to congratulate your friends on an incredible episode, and Naya to perform his usual HP check on Frisk and Rosey. They are a little injured this time, but nothing Naya can’t handle on his own.

QuincyBot reattaches his limbs and sends your group off with a smile he reserved for close friends. You gave him a hug, “Go talk to Lana, you dork. She really misses you. You’ve got time now.”

“I should have done this a long time ago. And more recently too, if that makes sense. Thank you for reminding me Y/n.”

“No worries, old friend. You know I always do whatever I can.”

Quincy turns to Frisk, “Hey. You’ve made it this far. You said earlier that I’d meet this friend of yours on the surface. You think we’ll really make it out?”

“Of course,” Frisk says, a determined glint in his eyes, “I’ll make sure of it. I ** _will_ ** see you all leaving this mountain with me.”

That statement fills you with HOPE. Frisk is filled with DETERMINATION.

…

Your walk really began after you left the elevator, which ran straight to the capital. The capital is brighter than the rest of the other districts. But the buildings are not as colourful (they’re bleached white, odd for a place with no sun to bleach buildings), most of the colour is whatever the monsters used to decorate their homes and the streets. For a capital city, it feels more like an attempt to keep up moral, than a celebrating, proud center of monster society. Naya, while disappointed at the state of the capital, does ask you to show them your favourite stores and places in the city. One place you show them is a candy shop, which holds a large spot in your heart.

“Hey Naya, your remember Ivan?”

“Yeah?”

“This is where we met. It’s one of my favourite places.”

“Oh.”

“Who’s Ivan?” Frisk asks, but before you can answer, Naya pulls Frisk and Rosey over and whispers something to them.

“Never mind then.” Frisk concluded.

You spent a gracious amount in that shop, monster candy galore, mostly in sweet citrus and chocolate flavour.

“You going to share?” Naya asks hopefully.

“Baby brother, I love you dearly, but I think I love my candy more. Sorry.”

Naya gives you a sympathetic nod and wanders around to find his own candy to buy with some of the money he and Frisk split from the room servicing tips.

…

The monster history museum is also a sight to behold. You don’t have time to wander it’s exhibits, but you know several of the stories in there that you can retell later.

You wondered if Frisk would be interested in other museums too.

…

The entrance to the castle is through a house.

“It looks exactly like the layout of Princess Athena’s house in the Ruins.” Frisk says.

“Well they are sisters. I’m not surprised Princess Athena took the look of her home with her.” The Panther monster was always one for remembering home, and nostalgia, if you recall correctly.

“I’m going to warn you now, Frisk. Empress Reina is a force to be reckoned with. One of the reasons we all follow her is because of her incredible strength. My mother can barely even touch her in a spar. Either we talk this out with her, or we fight it out and hope your Determination and my Special Attacks are enough to hold her off until we think of something else.”

The way to the basement, which lead to the castle was sectioned off with a lock and a small barrier behind it too keep out any who didn’t find the key. Your group split up to search the house. You took the kitchen, Naya took the living room and Frisk took the bedroom halls. You found the key in a small drawer, and returned to the stairs to wait for Naya, Frisk and Rosey.

“You found the Key!” Roses added.

“That I did. Did you guys find anything interesting?”

“Yep!” Naya said, and holds up a slice of pie, “It’s cinnamon chocolate pie! It restores infinite health, so it doesn’t matter how much you lose when you eat it!”

“Nice, what about you guys?”

Frisk holds up an old, but sharp dagger and a small golden locket with words scratched into it, “my new defense and offense.”

He puts his frying pan into his inventory and puts on the locket, still leaving the cowboy hat on.You, in turn, unlock the chains blocking off the stairway and you sense the small barrier fall, you then wave everyone down the stairs and follow towards the basement.

“To the castle.”

…

The “Basement” is a hallway that leads to the castle, although throughout that hallway you encounter other monsters who tell you the story of Princess Willow and the First Fallen Human, Avery.

“It all started a long time ago, as most stories tend to, when the Empress was still a young, new ruler, and there were three royals. The Empress, Reina the tiger, Princess Athena, the Panther, and Princess Willow, the Leopard. Willow was still in stripes when the tragedy happened.”

“When the human first fell Underground, monsters were no longer bitter about the war, and happily embraced the fallen Human into their family. The Human’s name was Avery and he and Willow were as close as two could be. One day though, the Human fell ill. Many tried to heal them, but Avery could not pull through.”

“The day that Avery died, he asked Willow to take his body to a field of flowers at the base of the mountain, where he used to play with his twin sister. Princess Willow took his soul, and his body, crossed the barrier, and carried him to the base of the mountain.”

“The humans of the village saw the princess carrying the body of a dead child and assumed she killed Avery. This drove them to anger and they hurled rocks, tools and weapons at Willow, who never fought back. Instead, she turned around and returned to the mountain with Avery’s corpse and managed to make it far enough into the castle to collapse into Princess Athena’s rose garden.”

“Willow soon dusted in that garden, and the Underground mourned as a whole, since they’d lost two children in one day, one directly tied to the humans. Empress Reina decided enough was enough, and created a law stating that all humans who fell would be killed, and their Souls harvested to go towards breaking the barrier and gaining our freedom back.”

“May our beloved Princess Willow and Human Avery rest in peace.”

…

What a story. Naya was tearing up, you could hear it in his voice that he was going to start crying soon. Rosey looked horrified and Frisk was trying to console both of them, to no avail. You aren’t any better at this kind of stuff.

“Well… Now is our chance to leave as well, except there will be no coming back, because we’re going to free the Underground and get to Topside, right Frisk?”

You see the Determination returning and he gives you a confident nod. Good. That’s what you want to see.

Now you enter a large hallway that Frisk says “looks like a Church”, as he slips off the huge hat he’s been wearing to hide under. Inside the golden hallway is Andrew. Apparently your displeasure was quite clear on your face, because as soon as Andrew looks at you, he backpedals, “Stars! Why do you look so mad? I’ve got a job to do- you know how Judgement goes!”

“Get it over with. We’ve got stuff to do, and I’m quite willing to call Az again to chew you out. Maybe I’ll call Hunter while I’m at it. You two seem to get along _ so well _ at last years Gyftmas party.”

“Don’t! Uhh... I’ll do my job and then you all can get out of my sight, ‘aight?”

You continue glaring, without a word, and he awkwardly turns to **[CHECK]** Frisk, “Well done Human, you’ve made it to the Judgement Hall-”

“Oh now your attitude gets a hall? You must be the best at it in the Underground!” Naya calls out.

You almost break your angry facade when you see Andrew’s ears twitching in annoyance, but you remain strong, and Andrew hesitantly continues, “You’re going to move on and meet the Empress in a moment, but that’s then. This is now. Now, you’ll be judged for every action you’ve made since falling. You’ve killed none. You’ve abused none, and you even run away from some of your battles with a smile. You’ve been nothing but curious, and helpful. I guess you aren’t as bad a human as I thought you were. My brother hasn’t made a new friend in a long time, and you made him a pretty happy monster, Human.”

Andrew? Say something not douche-y? You guess there’s a first time for everything.

“I guess I should explain some last things before you go on. LV, EXP, and HP. LV stands for LoVe, or Level of Violence. It goes up every time you attack someone, and as the numbers grow higher, so does your tolerance. You start to block out guilt and remorse at those activities. Typically, monsters or humans with high LV are dangerous and to be avoided at all costs. Some exceptions to those rules are highly empathetic Boss Monsters, who gain them from duties, but never let go. If you gain enough EXP, or Execution Points, which are gained from killing another being, you gather LV too. EXP and LV are deeply connected in ways that tell you a lot about a person, and how their morals swing. Luck for all of us, you don’t have any LV or EXP. And for HP, that’s a bit of a mystery to even us. Some think it’s HoPe, and those who persist are less likely to die, although some think it’s Hit Points, a capacity for damage taken to your person.”

“Why does HP matter Andrew? We know what happens when it runs out. I don’t think Frisk needs the entire theory breakdown.” You huff.

“_ -But I personally think it’s Hit Points _. Some of the strongest monsters down here are the closest to Falling Down, like your friend’s latest Date-mate.” He continues.

_ ** <strike>He didn’t just do that</strike> <strike>.</strike> <strike> He’s not going to do that. You won’t allow him.</strike> ** _

So much for that Andrew’s-maybe-not-a-waste-of-dust thing you were thinking of. Your magic burns with hatred, instead. There’s not much stopping you from beating Andrew’s 6 HP down to 0.1, or 0.2 if you’re feeling nice. Maybe you’ll just knock him down a peg or two, for Ivan.

“Andrew. Didn’t your little brother ever teach you it’s rude to talk about fallen monsters like that? And here I thought him scolding you this morning would knock the sense back into you but...”

You’re wearing the cruelest <strike>bearing of teeth</strike> smile you’ve ever made, strutting right up to this ** _disrespectful, little prick_ ** and you grab a fistful of his t-shirt’s collar. then lift him into the air above your head height. He’s a short monster and this makes him start to fearfully try to pry off your hand, scratching with his claws, batting, swinging and missing at you, to no avail. You have tough scales, his claws are nothing (your armoured uniform is a formality). You look right into his wide, scared black eyes and you let your eyes light up with amber magic. You can see it’s bright enough to cast a yellow glow into the lynx’s face.

“You know, Ivan really helped me calm down and become the person I am today. Ivan never liked it when I got mad. They’d stop me from lashing out and attacking anyone who got in my way,” You allow a twisted laugh to spill from your mouth, “_ but as you so helpfully mentioned _ , ** _Ivan isn’t here anymore_ **.”

You watch, gleeful on the inside as his face falls into abject horror at what you’re implying <strike>Ivan can’t save you now</strike>. You can see the regret in his expression. That’s right. Don’t be a brat, Judge, “Alas, you are _ Azlan’s brother _. I know he would be upset with me if you were not here anymore. So be glad you have such a nice brother, otherwise…”

You chucked.

“**Y O U ‘ D B E D E A D W H E R E Y O U S T A N D .**”

That’s his line,“Want me to keep going? How about this, Andy? Birds are singing, the flowers are blooming, it’s a beautiful day! Oh… What’s the next part Andy?”  


“No! Okay! I’m sorry! I should not have disrespected the human, your brother, or Ivan! I’m sorry! I’m sorry Y/n!”

Your storm silences itself, and you turn to your entourage, “What do you guys think of the apology? Is he forgiven?”

Rosey doesn’t look very impressed with you. You can understand that, after what she’s just seen. Your mother wouldn’t be proud either (Ivan wouldn’t be proud). Frisk, true to his kind nature as Andrew had commented on, said “Yes, I think that’s a simple enough apology. I forgive him.”

Naya nods too, “Yeah, you’re still a jerk, but the apology _didn’t suck_ I guess.”

“Great. We’ll be on our way, then.” You drop him, and he crumples onto the golden floor in shock.

That’s your group’s cue to walk through the rest of the Judgement Hall, leaving Andrew to think about his wrongdoings. Once you reach the end, you keep walking, until you reach a room full of coffins, each labeled with a coloured Soul and a name, if you remember correctly.

“Give me a second guys. I need to do something.”

You duck inside the room, and sit down, facing a wall. You suck in one long, shaky breath, and the sobs you’ve been holding since you left Andrew on the floor are rolling out of you in droves. There’s no wailing, or whimpering. Just the sound of your own hiccuping breath, like your lungs were short-circuiting. It’s been three years, it’s been longer. You should be better by now, right? You’ve got bigger things to worry about. But you’re more of an angry cry type of monster, instead of a silent rage angry type. Yet another thing you and your mother don’t have in common.

Frisk grabs a bit of the back of your shirt to grab your attention, “It’s a… cowardly thing. What he said. It’s a low blow meant to insult you instead of making a point. That’s not a conversation. He’s just being horrible. I’m glad you showed him your patience has ends. He's got to figure out someone will eventually beat him within an inch of his life with an attitude like that.”

Ah yes, there’s still your charges here. You have to be strong for now. Just a little longer. You wipe the tears from your face, and put your breathing under an iron grip, forcing it to even out. You push back your shoulders and straighten up your posture. Like how you were raised to be. You take one last second to prepare yourself, and then you turn back around to meet your friends.

“Sorry about that. It’s a weird subject.” You didn’t even know Frisk had an aggressive bone in his body that would prompt him to _ congratulate _ you for potentially traumatizing Andrew.

“It’s alright, we all need to cry it out sometimes.” Rosey says.

You laugh tiredly, “I need to work on my temper though. I can’t just threaten anyone who insults me…”

“You’re ignoring the fact that there was more. You didn’t get violent until _ now _ . He threatened me, Frisk and Rosey, then insulted a dusted loved one, while still giving you passive aggressive remarks for _ years _ . For what? Was it dating his brother or breaking up with said brother? It didn’t even end badly! You two are still best friends. Anyone would have lashed out by now. You gave him chances and warnings to cut it out, _ but he kept pushing _ ! He’s the Judge for stars sake, he’s supposed to have a good judgement of character! But _ noooooo _\- he seems plenty happy to just keep stomping all over yours. I don’t know how he didn’t see this coming!” Naya assures you.

You hear Frisk laugh at your brother’s tangent about the lynx monster’s bad attitude, and you let a couple snickers out too. This satisfies your brother and he offers you and hand up, which you decline and you pull yourself off the ground.

“Let’s get going. We’ve got an appointment with the Empress.”

...

The throne room is well lit and covered in roses of different colours, types and blooming stages. There are also some other flowers, like Buttercups and orchids of many different shades and types. The Empress stood in the center of it all, watering the flower beds. She quickly notices your quartet’s appearance and addresses you, albeit, very tiredly.

“Ah guests. Would you like some tea?”

“Sure. Do you have milk tea?” Naya asks.

“I do.” She smiles.

The occasion isn’t really appropriate, but you’d like to at least try a non violent solution.

…

You sit in another room, connected to the throne room and much less flora filled. The table all five of you sit at is an old, polished wooden one, likely made when the Empress first came to the throne. Even Rosey is given a smaller teacup to drink from. She holds it carefully with her vines and roots.

“I’m sorry. The best I can do is offer you time to wrap up any loose ends you have, before coming back. You must be aware, that I will have to kill Second Captain Y/n and Rosey for treason, correct? Young Naya, you will be spared, but intense supervision will be placed on you for being an accessory to this crime. I will have to take Aver- Frisk’s Soul too.”

What a depressing message.

“I’m sorry.”

“I know. It’s not easy being a leader.” You assured her.

...

That was how you ended up standing back outside the throne room again.

“What now?”

“I could visit Ivan’s memorial… Or maybe introduce you to my family so they know where we’ve been. What would you three like to do?”

Before the rest of your group can answer, your phone rings.

“Dad? Why’s he calling?” Naya ponders at seeing the contact show up on the screen, “Couldn’t he just text one of us?”

“I don’t know, maybe he’s getting back to us about the puzzle issues in Hotland?” You pick up the call, “Hey Dad. Everything alright?”

“Ah. Y/n. I don’t- I’m not sure how- can.... Could you all come back to… The Lab please. I need to show you something. It’s really important to me. And I’m sure you and Rosey will be more interested… In it.”

“Alright we’ll-”

Click.

“Did Dad just hang up on you?”

“I-ah-yeah I think he did. He never does that without warning though…”

“Something might be wrong -we need to go check the Lab out!” Rosey implores.

“Let’s go.”

Your group speed ran the elevators and you redirected them after the last one, down a walkway you three hadn’t used to go up in the first place. It was the path originally blocked by the Guards, at the Lab entrance intersection.

“There’s the Lab! We’re almost there!” Rosey calls from Frisk’s backpack.

You all scramble towards the automatic doors and squirm while you wait for them to open. When the do, your group dashes inside with the patience of a starving animal. This time around, the Lab was not swamped in darkness. But it was empty and silent. It unnerved you to great amounts, and you began calling out for your father, or Quincy.

But nobody came.

…

“Where could he be?” Naya fretted.

Your little brother was on the verge of tears, as his anxiety spiked. Frisk looked at the door in the wall by the moving stairs, and your own eyes wandered there as your memories played back again. Of you using an elevator to go down.

<strike>Dark, darker, yet darker</strike>

You spoke up, “I… I think I might know."

You pointed a hesitant finger at the door when Rosey and Naya gave you confused looks.

You were going to do this again. Down to where you thought it happened. Was your Dad finally ready to tell everyone what happened to Doctor Gaster or was this something worse? You all piled into the small elevator and pressed the only button lit up out of nine on the wall: The Downwards Arrow. You didn’t like this, and Frisk could tell.

“So what’s down here?” Frisk asked you.

You gulp down some choking hesitance of your own, “It’s the True-”

The elevator begins to shake, like there’s turbulence somehow, before an ungodly snapping sound is heard and the elevator goes into free fall. You don’t remember the elevator doing that originally, so you turn every Soul in the elevator Blue and float everyone off the floor, onto the elevator ceiling.

“WARNING! WARNING! ELEVATOR LOSING POWER! EM TETHER STABILITY LOST!” A robotic voice echoes through the falling box, from a speaker in a ceiling corner.

Red lights are flashing and Naya is begging someone to tell him what’s happening. <strike>Nobody knew enough to tell him</strike>

“ALTITUDE DROPPING!”

You close your eyes and hear the telltale crunch-thunk of an incredibly heavy metal elevator hitting the bottom of the elevator shaft and the elevator goes dark. Luckily, it’s an incredibly heavy, metal and very strong elevator so you aren’t crushed like pop can on impact. You can still hear the crash sound ringing in your ears when you notify everyone to prepare to be put back into normal gravity. The elevator lights have overloaded and died, it makes the metal-on-metal screech of the opening elevator doors even more chilling. You’re more surprised to see that there’s more light beyond the sliding doors.

As soon as someone gets back to earth, they rush out of the elevator. Before you leave, you check the 9 buttons again. None of them work. The elevator really did lose all power. The room outside the elevator is barely lit at all. You can’t even tell if there’s actually any light or if it’s your advanced vision kicking in again, as it did in the pitch black elevator. The room is connected to a compact hallway, also dark, but they have screens on the wall that light up with green text when you get close enough/

“Do you see anything?” Frisk calls, “All I can see is green writing on the wall.”

Confirmed dark. Naya takes this as his cue to step into Darkness Guide mode.

“There’s screens on the walls with stuff written on it. I’m just gonna read it to save us some trouble.” You decided.

“ENTRY NUMBER 1

This is it... Time to do what the Empress has asked me to do. I will create the power to free us all. I will unleash the power of the SOUL.”

“That doesn’t sound safe.” Naya concludes.

You continue reading what you see, “ENTRY NUMBER 2

The barrier is locked by SOUL power... Unfortunately, this power cannot be recreated artificially. SOUL power can only be derived from what was once living. So, to create more, we will have to use what we have now... The SOULs of monsters.”

You keep reading out the text on the numerous screens as you continue down the hallway, “ENTRY NUMBER 3

But extracting a SOUL from a living monster would require incredible power... Besides being impractical, doing so would instantly destroy the SOUL's host. And, unlike the persistent SOULs of humans... The SOULs of most monsters disappear immediately upon death. If only I could make a monster's SOUL last…”

You don’t like where this is going.

“ENTRY NUMBER 5

I've done it. Using the blueprints, I've extracted it from the human SOULs. I believe this is what gives their SOULs the strength to persist after death. The will to keep living... The resolve to change fate. Let's call this power... "Determination."”

“That… Doesn’t sound good.” Naya declares.

You _really _ don't like where this is going.

“Where’s number 4?” Frisk adds.

“I don’t know! It just skips from 3 to 5.” And there’s nowhere else to go, but turn the next left corner.

“Hey Frisk. Your Soul is a red one right?” Naya asks.

“Red as Hotland’s magma.” Frisk confirms.

“Red is the colour of Determination. Souls like that could generate enough magic to pull a broken Soul back together. You could, figuratively die several times, rebuild yourself, and try again from a certain point. No one would be the wiser but you. There’s probably more stuff you could do, but there’s enough studies on the powers of Mages to determine that you can probably time travel or something.”

“You’re right. I haven’t died since meeting you guys though, so it’s been pretty relaxing in comparison to other cases.” Frisk admits

“That’s good, I guess.”

...

What the hell. Frisk's a time traveler? Everyday you learn something new, you supposed.

...

This place feel claustrophobic to you. It’s a long hallway that leads to another room that feels like a fork in the road, although besides the two hallways splitting off from the left and right side ahead of you, there’s a set of large metal doors looming in the center of the wall ahead of you. There was an unlit vending machine beside it. Frisk buys some Popato Chisps from it and passes some to Naya, who opens the bag and passes a couple chisps to Rosey.

“Which way do you guys want to go? Left or right?” You ask.

“How about left?” Rosey says between bites.

Nobody objects, so your group marches left. There’s screen on the wall in this hallway. Your group’s morbid curiosity urges you to read them aloud to the children, almost like a bedtime story.

“ENTRY NUMBER 6

REINA asked everyone outside the city for monsters that had "fallen down." Their bodies came in today. They're still comatose... And soon, they'll all turn into dust. But what happens if I inject "determination" into them? If their SOULS persist after they perish, then... Freedom might be closer than we all thought.”

After that, there was just a larger room, with what appeared to be some kind of operating tables. Frisk stumbles into one when he trips on his own boots.

“Ow. Be careful- ewww. Don’t touch those. They’re sticky.”

You’d be sure not to, after an observation like that. Instead you turn your attention to the entry screen that isn’t far from the hallway entrance you just came from.

“ENTRY NUMBER 9

things aren't going well. none of the bodies have turned into dust, so i can't get the SOULs. i told the families that i would give them the dust back for the funerals. people are starting to ask me what's happening. what do i do?”

“It skipped again! And there’s no proper capitals! What’s up with whoever’s writing these?” Naya points out, completely ignoring the implied testing of living monster’s bodies.

Your group continues past the three operating tables before walking down another dark hallway beside three sinks. Inside the room at the end of the hallway, there’s a red slotted key box and a scribbly note on the floor nearby that you can only read three words from.

“something.... something... Drain… uhhhh… dropped it…. How informative.”

“We did just see sinks out there. Maybe some plumbing is in order.” Frisk suggests.

You return to the sinks. Frisk turns on and off the first one, Naya turns on and off the second, but yours… Something distinctly not water flows through. It forms in some sort of goop in the basin before coming to life and towering above you. You can sort of make out a face in there somewhere.

You’re all drawn into a battle. Your phones all start acting up, with odd voices sounding through. You _ really, really _don’t like this.

“What are they?” Naya demands.

“I’m **[CHECK]**ing! It says… Man that’s hard to read… Memoryheads?” Frisk replies.

“Come… Join the fun…” One of them gargles.

“MmmmmNOPENOPENOPENOPE!” Naya ever calmly replies, representing your entire party.

Frisk takes this as a chance to get a good look at the Memoryheads. He hits **[SPARE]**, and then the things all… Evaporate? The room has returned to it’s pre-battle look, and a red key glints in the sink.

“Anyone else want to bet that box in the last room has relevance to this key?”

“100%.” Rosey sighs.

You pick up the key, wash it off in the sinks and make your way back to the previous room. Wouldn’t you know it: The red key fits perfectly into the slot, and a red light above the slot begins to blink.

“There’s nothing else here,” Naya notes, “Let’s head back.”

…

There’s a red light lit up on one of the giant metal doors.

“I think this is a passageway puzzle. If we get all the keys like that red one, the door should probably open. There might be a functioning elevator on the other side.” You theorize.

With nothing else to do, your group walks the right path this time, although not before checking out the screen beside the doors, which helpfully states “POWER ROOM”.

…

Another screen.

“ENTRY NUMBER 12

nothing is happening. i don't know what to do. i'll just keep injecting everything with "determination." i want this to work.”

“Oh my stars they’re just going to inject stuff until something happens.” You groaned.

While it was a justifiable action, it did not sound like a smart one. Like an “I’ll keep adding gas to this flame until I can’t handle what happens next” sort of action.

“ENTRY NUMBER 13

one of the bodies opened its eyes.”

Your friends are silent. You feel like it wasn’t you who read it, but someone else, and it was rattling to say the least.

“So it worked then?” Naya cautiously asks.

You don’t need to say anything to know what the group was thinking: Then what was that thing from before, and why is there no one else here?

The next room has an empty dog food dish in the corner, but plenty of cozy, unmade beds. Frisk lays down in one, as he doesn’t want to drag down Naya while he searches the room with you.

You looked away from Frisk and Rosey for only a second, but when you turn around, there’s a white, glowing… thing <strike>is that a spoon or is it something else? you can't figure out this one</strike>… thing tucking Frisk in, while he says “Thanks Y/n.” Rosey’s staring at whatever it is, in shock, too surprised to tell Frisk he has the wrong name.

You call out to him, “Frisk. That’s not me.”

Frisk’s eyes snapped open and the thing fades away as soon as it realized it’d been seen.

All is silent for a moment, before Naya stutters through reading another screen on the opposite end of the room, “ENTRY NUMBER 14

Everyone that had fallen down... ... has woken up. They're all walking around and talking like nothing is wrong. I thought they were goners...?”

“Like Goner Kid?” Frisk asked Naya.

“No, I think- _ I’m pretty sure _ this is just slang.”

Everyone decides to keep exploring the hallway closest to that screen, and save the other hallway for later. This hall leads to another left-right split.

“Left as usual?” You propose.

No objections.

“ENTRY NUMBER 15

Seems like this research was a dead end... But at least we got a happy ending out of it...? I sent the SOULS and the vessel back to REINA. And I called all of the families and told them everyone's alive. I'll send everyone back tomorrow. : )”

“Awww, there’s even a little smiley face at the end!” Rosey coos.

“ENTRY NUMBER 16

no No NO NO NO NO”

“I think the smiley face was a call made too early…” Frisk observed solemnly.

You enter the off-shooting hall and come across a path to a purple shower curtain… With something swinging behind it. It sort of looked like the thing that tucked Frisk into bed earlier. Frisk and Naya volunteer themselves to go check it out. The closer they got, the faster the swinging got behind the shower curtain, so fast, that you could hear swooshing sounds from the start of the hall. When they finally yanked back the curtain- there was nothing there. Nothing but a green key.

Naya looked back at you with a _“What does this mean?”_ look, you shrug and tell him to grab the key while they’re over there. With that mission accomplished, you return to the hall the one you just entered shot off from. You follow it to another room, with a red, animal skull shaped machine, hooked up with several tubes and wires. You are extremely careful to avoid it, and demand everyone not touch it.

Of course, nothing in this abyss under the Lab seems to go smoothly, and another… white thing jumps out from the machine and pulls you into an encounter. This one has shape though. Or, more so than the Memoryheads. It looks like a melty cross between a moldsmall type, a shyren type, and it had an Aaron’s arms. Was this what happened to all the inhabitants of the floor? Did they all… Meld together?

“Frisk?! What do we do?” Rosey demands.

“Uhhhhh- Naya you hum, Y/n, you flex like your life depends on it, Rosey, _ Unhug it _, and I’ll… I’ll scream and call for help?”

Your systematic several actions overwhelmed the thing and it disappeared after Frisk **[SPARE]**ed it.

“What in the name of the Angel…” You grumbled.

...

You read out the only screen in the room. “DT EXTRACTION MACHINE- STATUS: INACTIVE.”

You shudder at the very sight of the machine that first blew up when you were little (You hope the INACTIVE status never changes). Instead of dwelling on it, you continue to the closest room exit, which leads to a room covered in opaque flog that makes everyone’s throats burn, so you turn the party around and out almost as soon as you enter. Maybe the other doorway in this room will lead to something useful?

In the other room, there’s a wall screen, and a television, as well as another key box, this time, with a yellow slot and a note on the ground that says, also barely readable, “Under… sheets.”

The screen says something else:

“ENTRY NUMBER 4

I've been researching humans to see if I can find any info about their SOULS. I ended up snooping around the castle... And found these weird tapes. I don't feel like REINA's watched them... I don't think she should.”

“Ayyy, we found number four! I’m going to assume the tapes are by this TV?” Naya reported, gesturing to the VHS decked shelves.

Frisk squatted down in front of one of the shelves on the left side of the TV and Naya summoned some glowing magic bullets to help him see, “They’re all in alphabetical order, mostly surface cartoon, except for- _ EWWW _\- there’s sticky ones in here too! Don’t touch these!” Frisk advised.

You check the other shelf, while you listen to Frisk grumble about “Why me and the sticky stuff…”, this other shelf on the right side is also alphabetized, and luckily for you, not sticky. While you do this, Frisk shifts over to the VHS’s on the TV stand, which are labeled Tape 1 to Tape 5.

“Are we gonna snoop more than we have already?” Frisk asked you all, mischievously

“Well duh. No point in doing a half job.” Rosey remarks.

….

Five tapes later and some tears from Naya, you realize that some of these tapes are of Princess Willow and Avery playing, and one tape is simply what might have been Willow’s last words to Avery, when they died. There were even some hints dropped that the two children had tried to make a pie for Empress Reina, with a recipe from Princess Athena, but they mistook cups of butter for buttercup flowers, accidentally poisoning the Empress for a short time. That later became 'useful' when, what it looks like, Avery was going to give up his Soul so Willow could cross the Barrier, gather six more Human Souls, come back and break it. Knowing how the story you were told ended, this plan did not work.

“Avery was a Determined Soul too. Now I understand why they didn’t just Reset like you did. They _ wanted _ to die…”

If you thought the words on the screens were morbid, it was nothing so far compared to what Naya just proposed happened to the first fallen human.

…

You walk back down the hallway, but slip behind the DT Extractor, where you wave your hand over a section of the wall, and step through it. Your team is waiting for a couple minutes in the Tapes room while you check this out.

Inside this room is stacks on stacks of notes on paper, and one screen, with its words written in Wingdings symbols. You can read them easily, it’s been drilled into your head by your father, but a speaker clicks on at the same time the screen does.

“ENTRY NUMBER 17

Dark, darker, yet darker. The darkness keeps growing, the shadows cutting deeper. Photon readings negative. This next experiment seems very, very… Interesting. What do you two think?”

Click.

The audio is a bit corrupted, with various beeps and background noise, but you can hear Dr. Gaster speaking every word clearly. That’s it. There’s proof. Whatever happened 10 years ago wasn’t some hallucination you had. Your father’s odd behavior wasn’t about a too realistic nightmare, or absurd fever dream. He was there. Just like you remembered.

You thought you were crazy. Your memory wasn’t deteriorating. You’re not crazy.

...

You walk back to your three companions in a bit of a daze, and you guide them away from the DT extractor room, and back to the bed filled room to look for the key that was probably hidden under some sheets. After a minute or two of searching, Naya found a yellow key under the covers. This wakes you from your thoughtful episode. Your group sets the yellow key in the key box by the TV and continue on your way, this time going the right turn on the split. You come across another fog filled room, but it’s not as bad as the other, and it doesn’t burn your throat. There’s a screen you read, right by the entrance to the room. You have to move your face a lot closer to the screen to properly see the text this time.

“ENTRY NUMBER 11

“i’m so tired. i’m not sure if i’ll be able to finish Quincy’s new body soon enough, and i don’t know how long i can keep doing this. i want to see my kids, and my wife again. i hate missing their events. my oldest just graduated from a university, and my youngest is exceptional at healing magic. i hate this so much… i haven’t even solved the issues down here...”

“It sounds like Dr. Bryn is the writer of these entries. This sounds like the kids that are described are you two.” Rosey reckoned, “Did you go to university Y/n?”

“Yep, graduated early with the monster equivalent of a PhD in Quantum Physics. I wanted to know what my dad was always talking about and I helped out a lot in the Lab in my free time before I became a Guard,” you returned, “I see some fans lining this wall. I’m going to check for a switch. You guys stay here”

You do eventually find a switch on the wall, and you press it. In about a minute, the fog has fully disappeared from the room and started to walk back to your team. Instead, another blob of melted… monster? Leaped out of the fans, blocking your path.

“Are you serious?” You complained, as you and your team were dragged into another encounter.

Although, instead of another confusing fight, Frisk pulls an item out of his inventory and uses it, immediately calming the melted thing, and it evaporates, like the others.

“What was that?”

“Hush puppy. It was one of the things I got as a tip back at the hotel. It neutralizes all dog magic. That one was called Endogeny.”

Come to think of it, the last melted thing was somewhat dog-resembling. Sort of? It was hard to tell. Instead, you pointed out that the room was clear of fog.

Naya caught on, “The other room is probably clear too.”

…

Inside the previously foggy room is a bunch of refrigerators, and another screen.

“ENTRY NUMBER 19

the families keep calling me to ask when everyone is coming home. what am i supposed to say? i don't even answer the phone anymore.”

“Another large counting skip. Are we missing something or is it just how we’re exploring?”

The first fridge is normal, empty. Perhaps not even turned on. The second fridge does work, and it contains samples of some kind, which nobody touches, in remembrance of previous sticky attacks.

There’s another screen between the second and third fridge, “ENTRY NUMBER 20

REINA left me five messages today. four about everyone being angry. one about this cute teacup she found that looks like me. thanks reina.”

You wished you knew if that was sarcastic or not.

The third fridge shuddered and most of you could already guess there was something in it. Were you still going to open it though? Absolutely. Oddly enough, it was empty. Maybe this place was really setting off everyone’s paranoia.

Another entry:

“ENTRY NUMBER 21

i spend all my time at the garbage dump now. it's my element.”

“Oof.” You heard Frisk reply to that entry.

If this was your father, did that mean he was avoiding you, even though he was in Waterfall, to hang around in the dump, because he felt like living trash? That thought made you unsure of how to feel: offended that he didn’t tell any of you, or if you pitied him. You sure had a lot to talk about with your dad now. Maybe you should start making a list so you wouldn’t forget it all when the time came.

This story was odd. Your father was usually the one you went to for problem solving advice. But a failing experiment that produced melted monsters as a result wasn’t really on the same level as telling school bullies off for being jerks, you supposed. Science dilemmas were a lot harder to solve than social issues. Once your father got more busy (likely with this project) you had to turn to your mother for advice, which was usually advice that made you look scarier to those who hurt you. You kind of had to find your own healthy balance.

The fourth fridge also contains samples that nobody dares touch, and you finally move onto the last fridge, which sat beside another door-less entryway. As the usual was, it was empty. Your assembly attempt to move onto the next room, but are stopped by the fridge… turning into another melty thing.

Fantastic.

…

It’s almost unable to function attack wise. The poor thing can’t even form attacks anymore. There’s so many monsters pushed together to create this one, that it looks like it’s lost its entire sense of self. The words it tries to create are clumsy and difficult to understand. You feel second-hand misery just by being in this encounter.

Frisk tells it a bad pun about snow, “I invited a blizzard to my birthday party once, but it _ snowflake-ed _ on me.”

It laughs, but sounds like they’re in pain, “I…. re... member that…”

The room’s getting colder. Frisk tells another, and another, and another. Rosey starts to laugh. It’s so funny. She’s laughing so hard tears are streaming down her tiny flower face, but it doesn’t feel funny. The monster’s attacks are still… barely even summoned and it’s still unable to feel itself.

One final pun, and the thing has calmed down.

“Thank… you.” And it vanishes, leaving a blue key on the floor, which Naya picks up carefully.

Your groups enters the next room. There’s the green key’s box. You leave the key, and read the note of the ground, “Okay, I can’t really read this, but it’s… something...something… Curtains.”

You’d already found the key anyways, so you drop the note and go back to the bed room, the odd fridge still shuddering like it contained something, and finally get to the second off-shooting hallway. It leads to a room somewhat built off the hallway, containing several blue roses in pots and a couple mirrors on the wall.

“ENTRY NUMBER 7

We'll need a vessel to wield the monster SOULs when the time comes. After all, a monster cannot absorb the SOULs of other monsters. Just as a human cannot absorb a human SOUL... So then... What about something that's neither human nor monster?”

One look at the several flowers confirms what the screen implied. The flowers were tested too.

“ENTRY NUMBER 10

experiments on the vessel are a failure. it doesn't seem to be any different from the control cases. whatever. they're a hassle to work with anyway. the seeds just stick to you, and won't let go…”

You all continue walking, soon the tables end and you come across a set of several wall mirrors. Naya re-ties his hair ribbon while looking at one, but squints at something he sees.

“Hold on…”

His reflection suddenly turns white and separates itself from the mirror, becoming yet another melted monster. Naya scrambles away from the mirrors until he bumps into you. You all watch in horror as the thing’s own first magic attack, instead turn on itself. Its next turns get its act together, but there was a lot of dodging needed this time around, before Naya finally hits the *Pick On* option and the thing disappears.

You managed to catch its name: Reaper Bird. You didn’t say it out loud, but you thought that was a pretty cool name.

….

The room branched off at the end of the hallway has the blue key’s box, which Naya insets the key into, and you all head back to the room with the large doors, to see if your work opened them up. Everyone avoids getting too close to any of the mirrors on the way back out.

All four lights are blinking on the door. It opens when you walk up to it and your assemble shuffles through. Inside is a better lit room compared to the rest of the Lab, with another set of nine buttons on a panel. But there’s a small branch off you to your left. You try the buttons. Dead.

Branch off adventure it was. You passed two screens, but neither lit up. You continued until you found another branch. Inside the room that branch lead to, is a machine, although much less colourful and only has a single red button on it You pressed it, because this is an adventure! All red buttons are pressed. Instead of the lights turning on, you hear the gurgling keening noises of the melted things. You turn around and find that you are, annoyingly, surrounded. They inch closer. Everyone either readies their magic, or starts fishing through their inventory for healing items.

“Hey!” The inching stops. “I got you guys your dinner? Happy now?”

You watch your father come out to scold the things, and they all run off at the mention of food. He looks tired and not at all like the silly, energetic monster who raised you.

“I’m sorry about that. They get angry when they’re hungry, just like you Y/n. They likely smelled the Popato Chisps you guys had on you. I guess you could probably already tell we had a bit of an energy situation, and the elevators went out. I was planning on meeting you and explaining everything, but I left to fix the power first. Which, by the looks of it, you beat me to the punch.”

“All of the melted monsters…” Naya starts.

“Amalgamates. The result of too much Determination being pumped into a monster. Our bodies don’t have enough physical matter like humans do. We’re mostly just magic and dust, supported by a Soul. Too much DT makes monsters lose whatever’s holding them together, so the patients started to melt. It soon became monsters melting together into Amalgamates. Our first case of testing was worse than whatever you’ve seen here. We lost another doctor to it.” You know what he’s talking about, and his eyes flicker to you when he said it.

You’re all quiet for a moment, before your father speaks again, “I’m sorry for not telling you, Y/n, Naya. I was terrified out of my mind that you would hate me. Or that everyone else would hate you for what I did, since I failed so horribly in each of my tests. But now I see that hiding it made everything worse. You guys don’t deserve to have to be raised in a world full of secrets and lies. I’m going to call the families. And apologize. I’ll get the Amalgamates to their families.”

This makes you smile. Your dad sees it, and offers a nervous smile back, before trailing after the Amalgamates, and leaving your quartet in the power room. As you walk out, the two screens that didn’t light up, turn on, but instead of the standard green writing, there’s a red smile that takes the screen first, before the letters come.

“ENTRY NUMBER 8

I've chosen a candidate. I haven't told REINA yet, because I want to surprise her with it... In the center of Princess Athena’s garden, there's something special. The first blue rose, that grew before all the others. The flower from the outside world. It appeared just before the Princess Athena left. I wonder... What happens when something without a SOUL gains the will to live?”

The new appearance of the screen, and the implications of the last sentence turns the air around you all much colder and harder to breathe than it was before.

“ENTRY NUMBER 18

the flower's gone.”

“Blue Rose…” Your heart drops.

You turn and point at Rosey, “Blue Rose.”

…

You all ride the elevator back up in silence. You can almost hear Naya and Frisk’s minds buzzing as they work out what you just revealed. On the way out of the Lab, get this odd feeling- like you need to make sure of something. You stop by a trash can and pick up a note, written in either messy writing or wingdings, you can read this:

**I KNOW WHAT YOU DID**

You stuff the note into your pocket and shake your head at Frisk’s inquisitive look, “Not the time”. You would answer all those questions at some point, but you needed to find the answers yourself first. Now you know why your father sounded so nervous and desperate on the phone call. That only added more questions to litter your brain though.

Flower. Dust. Broken Soul. Determination. Rosey. Missing. Shut In. It all made sense. You had to test your theory.

“Hey Willow?”

“Yeah?”

“...”

“Oh.”

“Oh indeed, missing princess.” You’ve just found the long presumed dead Princess of the Underground.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think? I doubt much of this was a surprise to you.
> 
> I promise the skeleton brothers are coming soon. Or wait... I guess not really skeleton brothers?
> 
> To the commenter who asked about monsters who had crushes on Y/n, you've now learned the identity of one of her previous partners. What do you think of Ivan? :)


	3. Topside At Last

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Like many things, Freedom comes with a price, although you're more worried about if you can afford the cost of trying to save Frisk from the Empress. 
> 
> Are you really ready to fight the Empress for a chance at freedom?
> 
> With so many thoughts swirling around your head (You need to tie up loose ends, Princess Willow=Rosey, What'll happen to your brother if you die, etc) you're not sure if you can do it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hint: Long chapter but we finally see Sans and Papyrus
> 
> WE FINALLY SEE SANS AND PAPYRUS AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA (when the burn is so slow you don't even meet the love interests until chapter 3)
> 
> This chapter is also pretty dialogue heavy, just to warn you.

Answering to a name you used to use, but is no longer yours? Beginners mistake, you get that. On the other hand, that was a double hit on your Things I learned Today list.

It looks sort of like this:

  1. Your little brother bought a gun. Why would he do this????
  2. Frisk can’t really _die_. They’re a time traveler. Fun times.
  3. Avery, the first fallen human, could also do that. Except, they chose to die. You didn’t know the power of DT until recently. You sort of fear it.
  4. Your father has several melted monsters called Amalgamates locked farther underground in a secret lab you’ve all decided to call the True Lab, because that’s where the science really happens.
  5. Your crazy dreams from your childhood aren’t actually just dreams, and it’s your subconscious replaying the memories of you watching another monster die (you aren’t really sure if he died, more so just vanished, and erased from the memories of the monsters who weren’t at the event)
  6. Rosey is actually a flower that was experimented on with DT and escaped to the Ruins at some point*
  7. Rosey is also Princess Willow, a long dead member of the Royal Family who’s come back in the form of a flower*
  8. Gaster may have left the crumpled up note in the Lab that pushed your father to finally start changing his ways and start telling people the truth
  9. Unless… There’s someone else who can write in wingdings?? Is this actually something you know or is this just another question?

*All questions marked with an asterisk are the aforementioned double hit questions about Rosey/Willow

The only thing you can think of is… To ask Willow about how she came back.

Your group is currently sitting in the Coffin room, after you went home and grabbed some extra armor for yourself and Frisk. Your scales may be strong, but there was only so many things they could guard you against, and they were weaker and softer in some areas like your palms, stomach and armpits.

You ask Willow:“So how’d you turn into a flower? I have a theory, but I feel like I should ask you.”

“I wish I knew. One moment, I’m in the throne room, dusting. The next, I’m in that cramped flower room we found in the True Lab, with the mirrors on the walls. I panicked, ran and just kept going until I hit the Ruins. I didn’t know where else to go, since who would believe some random flower about being dead Royalty.”

“Then what?”

“Well I didn’t know Athena was there, so it was a bit awkward hiding from her at first, but I guess I got a bit of a fresh start with her, since she didn’t recognize me. I stuck around for a long time. I had some super weak attacks and basically no defense, so I decided not to leave the Ruins unless I had someone big enough to protect me.”

“Okay I think I see where you’re going.”

“I should probably mention this detail: Under the only patch of sunlight into the Underground, there’s a patch of Blue Roses, just like me, but not sentient. There’s so much growth there, that they’ve covered the plaque over Avery’s grave. Those roses are hella strong too. So strong, they can cushion the fall of a human from that hole in the cavern’s ceiling.”

“Makes sense. The Underground is charged with magic. That, mixed with proper sunlight would likely make one heck of a strong plant.”

“One day, I’m visiting the grave, and suddenly Frisk hits the roses, right in front of me, just… Fell from the shy, likely through the sunlight hole. And let me tell you, Frisk looks super similar to Avery so I almost died from the fear of an un-dead human before I realized a) I’m also un-dead sort of, and b) it wasn’t Avery. I got curious and offered to guide him through the Underground to the exit, as long as he protected me. We met up with Athena, but they had a bit of an argument on the way out of the Ruins, so we had to fight her until she gave up on trying to stop us from leaving. It was then I found out about Reina’s whole ‘ _ Kill Every Human Who Falls Into The Underground _ ’ deal. I wasn’t impressed, but what was I going to do? I’m a flower with almost no magic and a fraction of a full Soul left over.”

“You didn’t mention the fraction-of-a-Soul part before.”

“We I don’t have a full Soul, it’s probably why I’ve got almost no magic usage left in me. That’s kind of it. I helped distract attacking monsters with my attack pellets so they couldn’t aim at Frisk properly, and I guided until we found Azlan and later Naya. You kinda know what happens on from there.”

“Okay. Want to hear my theory?”

“Sure.”

“Okay so upon dusting, I think your Soul  _ did _ shatter, but not all of it  _ disappeared _ immediately, since you fused with a Determined Soul, and likely didn’t want to die. I think the little bits of DT preserved a couple shards of your Soul on the flowerbed, along with your dust. Then my Dad came by, took some flowers, your body included, and injected a bunch with DT.”

“Alright, I understand what you’re saying so far.”

“Okay, so, what I think happened, is one particular rose had a lot of your dust and a large shard of your Soul in it, so once it got a shot of DT, it awakened the Soul shard, which still contained it’s own dormant DT. I think the Soul shard bonded to the dust and latched onto the rose for extra support. Boom, sentient flower monster happens.”

“It would explain why it never felt like I died, but instead just fell asleep for a while.”

“Yep. You wake up, go to the Ruins, my Dad noticed you were gone, probably freaked out a lot, went back to the experiments, we get it. I bet any remaining shards could be recollected, either by skimming the flower bed, or checking to see if they got caught in the Barrier.”

So now what? You still have time to spare, since the Empress gave you the option to back down and not fight her until you returned to the throne room. You scanned your memories for anything you didn’t want to leave unsolved or regret worthy.

That’s how you end up outside the throne room again, phone in hand, dialing the numbers of your friend’s and family’s contacts.

Starting with your mother.

“Hey Mum…”

“Y/n.. Are you alright darling? You sound scared. You don’t like calling people either.”

“I- I know. I really wanted to tell you that I love you though. Remember how you told me to always do what I thought was the right thing, and how part of my duties in the Royal Guard was to help the citizens of the Underground, right?”

“Yes. What are you getting at? Why are you talking so weirdly?”

“I’m going to do what I think is best. I don’t think you’ll like it. But if I don’t come back home, someone will tell you what happened, okay?”

“Y/n what are-”

“Mom. Please. Please don’t make me tell you. I just want to make everyone happy again. I’m seeing a chance to finally change things for the better, and I’m going to take it. You and Dad always told me to take the chances that could make everything better. You told me to keep trying. When I broke my leg trying a special attack in 9th year, you picked me up, healed me and told me I’d get it someday, as long as I kept trying? And it became one of my strongest moves!”

“I remember.”

“Right? So I’m going to do my best. I wanted to talk to you one last time. I can put Naya on the phone too if you want to see how he’s doing?”

“Alright.” Your mother sounds like she’s having a hard time breathing.

You pass your phone to Naya, who starts with a cheerful greeting and gets a conversation flowing. He also doesn’t say what you’re doing, but he does mention his two new friends and how he hopes they can meet her one day

Eventually your phone is passed back to you and you get in a final goodbye to your mother before you both end the call. Next on your calling spree is your father.

He doesn’t pick up. Your call goes to voicemail and you keep talking anyways.

“Hi Dad… I met the Empress before we stopped by your Lab. I’m outside the throne room right now. I already called Mom, so unless I don’t come back, please don’t tell her about my little adventure, yeah?” You chucked, but continued, “I don’t think talking it out with her is going to work. If I don’t win I’m going to die. I don’t really want to die, but at least I’ll have tried ta- t...to help get everyone out. So hopefully the next time I see you, we’re watching the stars, outside the mountain. By Dad, wish me luck.”

You hand up and scroll to the next contact. Lanablook.

“Hey Lana.”

“Hey? Are you alright?”

“Is Quincy there too?”

“Yeah, do you want me to pass ya to him?”

“Nah, just put me on speakerphone. I’ve got something I think you both should know.”

You wait a second before your friend confirms her phone is on speaker, “Alright, so as you both know, I’ve been assisting Frisk, the human. We kinda have to fight the Empress. I want to say my hopes are high, but she’s the strongest one down here.. I’m just calling to tell you what I’m about to do, so you might not have to hear it from my Dad, or Naya if I don’t come back.”

Nobody speaks for a moment. You’d be silent if one of your friends called and told you they’d fight the Empress.

“Hey. It’s been a good run, ya know?” Quincy speaks up, “And I have a feeling this isn’t the end of it yet. I know you’ve been working on something new, and with compassion like yours, I don’t think we’ll be losing Y/n Draco anytime soon. So you’d better not prove me wrong this time, okay you crazy lizard-fish!”

“Whoa! It’s  _ dragon _ -fish, get it right  _ Screws _ !” You retort.

“Ladies, ladies, you’re both pretty. But Quincy’s right. There can only be so many ghost monsters, and I’m tired of dust. So we’ll see you later, alright? You’re going to be okay. We’re all rooting for you, Y/n.” Lana chimes in.

“Thank you.”

“No problem Fishy. We’re counting on you and Frisk, alright? Now go get us out of these caverns.” Quincy says.

“You can count on us.” 

Click.

Onto the next.

Your call is picked up immediately. You didn’t have to wait for a single second.

“Y/n my love! You actually called me!”  Here you go again.

You can’t tell if what you feel right now is regret at calling or concern for Hunter, “Please don’t call me that, Spider. I’m still being serious.”

“Are your charges hurt? I can send a spider delivery with pastries to help?”

“What? Nobody’s hurt, but that you for the offer. I do have some bad news, depending on how you look at it.”

“Are… Y/n are you alright? Nobody’s died, right?”

“No one’s dead, luckily. It’s just that… The Empress can’t let Frisk go by without harnessing his Soul. And I’ve basically been his Body Guard all the way here, therefor, committing a crime punishable by dusting or lifetime imprisonment. Unless I win, which doesn’t sound very realistic, if I’m telling the truth.”

“But you don’t have to fight her? As long as you don’t go back for a fight she won’t hurt you right? That’s the policy, if I’m correct.”

“Then what? Wait for her to get bored and come collect Frisk’s Soul herself? This will happen eventually. I just want it to happen at least a little within my control. Like when it happens, and who I’ll be with. This is the better option Hunter.”

“Please don’t do this Y/n… I can’t lose my friend after we’ve only just talked again.”

“I called to tell you I don’t plan on dusting anytime soon, Hunter. I won’t be alone, and the goal is to break the Barrier. I also called because I wanted you to know what’s happening. In the case that I don’t leave the Throne room undusted, I wanted to talk to you one last time, I don’t want to die and leave my friends with their own loose ends.”

“I’ll be just fine if you’re just fine. I want you to call me once you’re done and I want you to tell me where you are so I can bring Spider treats and we’re all going to eat and be happy. You’re going to live and we’re going to see each other again. Alright?”

“Well how can I say no?”

“Clearly not ever. Good luck Y/n. You have my support.”

“Thanks Hunter. I’ll try and call you.”

“You better!”

Click. This next call would be your last.

“Hello? What’s up Y/n?”

“Hi Az, I just wanted to let you know that the Empress isn’t really available for a peaceful solution. Frisk and I… Frisk and I are going to have to fight her. And in the case that I don’t survive, I want to tell you that you’re my best friend. I don’t want to die, but I don’t know if I can win. This is the last call I’m making, so I wanted to ask you a favour.”

“What is it?”

“If I don’t come back, take care of my dad and Naya for me, please?”

“Absolutely. Although I sincerely hope it doesn’t come to that. I still need to make my brother apologize to you for being a prick to Frisk and Naya.”

“Ah about that… I kind of scared the living daylights out of him in the Judgement Hall, for insulting almost everyone in my little group here, and Ivan…”

“Pfft- that puts some things into perspective. He’s been moody since he came back and refuses to tell me why. This is why you have to survive that fight Y/n, you have to hear me shame him for life for this!” You can hear Az snickering on the other side of your line.

“Man, I sure hope you do.”

The two of you laugh for a moment, but this conversation doesn’t leave much room for joy. Your laughter fades out fairly soon and you feel the heavy feeling in your chest that means you’ve run out of ways to keep this going.

“I guess this is it then, Y/n?”

“Well hopefully not forever, but in the sense of this conversation… I think it is.”

“I’ll see you around buddy.”

“See you around, Az.”

**Click.**

…

That was it. There’s nothing left for you to do… Except for fight.

“Hey Frisk, let me know if you end up resetting us if I die. I want to see if I notice anything.”

“Are you sure?”

“I don’t see why not.”

…

“Well let’s go fight the Empress!” Naya reminds you.

“No.  _ We’re _ ,” You gesture to yourself and Frisk, “Going to fight. I refuse to put you and Ros-  _ Willow _ in any more hot water than I already have. I hate seeing you get hurt, and Mum would kill me if you got hit for my fight.”

“How is this your fight?! I found Frisk before you, and Willow was with him long before both of us! I was the one who told you not to tell Mom! This is just as much our fight as it is yours!”

Frisk takes Willow and takes a couple steps back to give you and your brother some privacy. Smart choice.

“1) We can’t pit Willow against her own sister! That’s cruelty! 2) You’re still in stripes! You still have so much to do! Places to go, people to meet, new things to experience- I’ve been out of my stripes for a while, I’ve seen so much, and met so many monsters, and my first human, Frisk. I even got to go on this incredible adventure with all of you, but I refuse to let you throw your life away before you can live it!”

Naya is full on giving you the nastiest look he can muster, but its effect is lessened by the tears flowing from your little brother’s eyes. You feel like crying too, but you’ve done enough of that for now.

“Please Naya. The Underground needs Healers. Topside needs them too. You are ultimately more valuable than fighting types like me. I’ve studied at a university, I’ve sparred with Mum, I’ve helped Dad in the Lab, I crossed the Underground with you. I’ve loved with Lana, Ivan, Azlan and Quincy. I’ve baked delicious cakes with Hunter. I’ve listened to ghost jams with Lana. I teamed up with Frisk and Willow to make it this far. It feels like our family’s practically gained another two members at this point,” you take a breath, “ ** _I am content_ ** . I don’t regret the life I’ve lived. So I want you to not fight, so you can live, and maybe one day look back on it, and not regret what you’ve chosen to do with that gift. Please Naya?”

...

“... You better not dust. I don’t want a dust shower later.”

“Thank you. I’ll do my best.’

…

“You ready Frisk?”

“As ready as I can be.”

You were super loaded with healing items and monster food. You gave the gun to Frisk and gave him a quick explanation on how to use it safely. You take a moment to mentally go over every special attack you know and your magic begins to flare under your scales, ready to fight.

“To freedom?” You ask Frisk.

“To Freedom.” You walk into the throne room.

…

“I see you’ve returned. Are you sure there’s no more personal affairs you have to take care of?”

“Of course, your Excellency. We’re here to fight, like you told us.”

“Alright, I do have one last thing to show you before we begin.”

She leads you down a hallway at the other end of the throne room, to a wider space, where you find the Barrier, a huge, opaque wall of pure, black, gray and white swirling magic. It hurts your eyes to look at it and you focus all your attention on the Empress to avoid your eyes straining.

“This is the Barrier humans made to seal us in. It’s trapped us for many millennia. There are very few monsters left who survived the war and remember the surface. I don’t want to fight you per say, but I owe it to my people to finish what I started.”

Seven containers rise from the floor behind your Empress, Each contains a coloured human Soul, except for one. You see Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo and Violet. There’s only one missing colour and one empty container, and you can assume why.

“Are you two positive you want this?”

“You wouldn’t let us talk it out before, your Highness.” You reminded her.

“I suppose you’re right,” Empress Reina admits, “It was nice to meet the both of you.”

…

The room darkens to black and your arena becomes outlined by white. This is the standard encounter look. It’s another layer of magic that stops bystanders and the areas surrounding you from harm caused by magic attacks.

Before you stands the huge tiger monster you call your Empress, dressed in golden armor and a baby blue cape that contrasts her orange and black stripes. In her hands is a huge trident almost the same height as her.

Before either of you can do anything, Empress Reina uses her weapon and smashes Frisk’s  **[MERCY]** button to pieces.

“I’m sorry child..”

It’s Frisk’s turn now. He goes for the  **[ACT]** button instead, and chooses *Talk*. He tries to persuade the Empress that there’s another way. He’s gone this far without needing to hurt anyone, he’s positive that this can be worked out too.

It was the Empress’s turn. She sends a barrage of fireballs down upon Frisk, who frantically dodges most of them, but doesn’t come out unscathed.

It’s your turn now. You hit your own  **[SPARE]** button in retaliation, “Empress, it doesn’t have to be like this! As long as Seven Human Souls are used, I don’t think it’ll matter if the one using them is one of the seven! We can work this out, just please consider our way!”

It’s the Empress’s turn again. Your  **[MERCY]** button gets destroyed too. So much for that effort. The Empress really isn’t leaving you with many options. You resist the urge to yell out “What The Hell” at that moment.

“Alright Frisk. We’re fighting. Heal when necessary.”

Frisk’s next turn is a  **[CHECK]** , and he relays Reina’s stats to you.

“Hp: 3500, Attack: 80, Defense: 80!”

Frisk is put under attack by orange and blue magic, which he’s already well versed in with the puzzles in Hotland and your own blue magic uses. Using that, Frisk acts appropriately to the attack and comes out unharmed.

You choose to attack, sending your own fire towards the enemy, with yellow spears following up. Reina is able to knock some of the spears out of the way, but is hit with the fire and remaining weapons for her efforts.

She loses 12 HP for it. You allow yourself a short moment of pride at being able to hit the Empress. It’s not much, but it’s better than no hit at all.

The Empress takes her turn by raining fire down at Frisk again, who’s forming a dodging strategy. He still doesn’t come out unharmed, but there’s less damage than before.

…

You all continue this pattern, the Empress attacks, Frisk doges or heals, he alternates between taking swings with the Dagger, using the Gun, and talking to the Empress, trying to talk her down from attacking. She never stops, but you notice her attacks do less damage, and you tell Frisk to keep trying. When it comes to your turns, you alternate your attacks, sometimes fire, sometimes spears. Sometimes blue or orange magic. You rarely use your turn to heal yourself, instead working on doing the most damage. The Empress spends the turn she has after you on alternating between attacking you and Frisk. And your pattern strategy is working.

Her HP changes from 3488, to 3474, to 3460 and it keeps dropping. You keep the Empress on her toes by throwing in something new, like a viciously fast water attack every so often.

It starts going wrong when Frisk runs out of healing items, he hits 2 HP at some point and has to eat the slice of Chocolate/Cinnamon pie, his last item. This also lowers Reina’s attack levels. The Empress is at 933 HP, and you have to start splitting your turn between healing Frisk, attacking, and healing yourself. You start running out of healing items twice as fast and you tell Frisk to start focusing more on attacks than talking.

933, 915, 896, 882.

You start to push your own HP levels lower as you spare more bandages for Frisk. Your 2000 drops to the 1500’s area and stays there for a while, and you only begin taking healing items when you hit the 400s.

The Empress gets a lucky hit on you, slashing through your torso guards and into your abdomen with her trident, leaving a three large gashes in her wake. One for each prong. Your HP drops down to 50. It's still pretty good to Frisk’s own 20 HP tops and currently 12 HP, but it’s not good compared to your normal, or the Empress’s 300 HP.

You’re running out of items and you don’t feel like pushing your luck. Your gut hurts, you’re bleeding and you can see some dust leaking from the slash in your abdomen guard too. You’re too weak to keep standing, and take a knee, but keep your magic flared up

It’s your turn.

“Frisk! Get down!”

You summon your Last Resorts: The Forge Blasters.

Three bear skulls the same height as you when standing, appear behind you, with orange and black magic orbs for eyes. You hold your hand out in a fist, pointing at the Empress. The skull’s jaws drop open and three lasers fly past you, sparks falling from the jaws themselves. The Blasters emit a high pitched hum when they let the lasers fly, and you take a moment to simply breathe as you listen to the sound.

The three beams hit the Empress dead on and threw her backwards into the Soul containers from the force. When your Forge Blasters finally close their jaws, cutting off the lasers, they fade away. What you see is the Empress, on her hands and knees, with three melted holes through her armor and covered in burns.

Her HP reads 8.

Three for three.

Frisk, who’s finally caught a break, picks up the pieces of his broken  **[MERCY]** button and reassembled it on the floor. When all the pieces are put together, it glows a weak gold and Frisk presses it, bringing up  **[SPARE]** and  **[FLEE]** in their options menu. He presses  **[SPARE]** carefully.

The Empress, from her weak position on the ground finds the strength to speak, “Why?”

“What do you mean?” You ask, as your own HP loses a point because of your bleeding and becomes 49.

“Why do you keep trying to spare me? I’m trying to kill you two. You should despise me. Can’t you see the Souls behind me? I killed three children for them! Why won’t you hate me?”

Speaking of the Souls: You can’t see them. The containers shattered when the Empress was knocked onto them by your Blasters.

“OH YEAH. COME LOOK AT THESE SOULS AND STOP FIGHTING, YOU IDIOTS!”

The encounter magic falls, returning you to the throne room, where you see Naya, Willow on his shoulder, Hunter, Quincy, Lana, Azlan and Princess Athena all standing off to the side off the Barrier room.. All but Lana are holding the Souls carefully in their hands, or in Willow’s case, her vines.

“What are you-”

“Are you done yet?” Naya demands, “Because we have the Souls. Now get over here so I can heal you and we can break the Barrier.”

Frisk happily runs over to Naya and Princess Athena, who start looking at his injuries and begin healing him, while Azlan and Quincy go help up the Empress. You however, topple over onto your butt from the surprise wearing off and the weakness of your body. You weren’t used to long lasting fights, with continuous healing strains and magic usage. Plus the fact that there was technically three different wounds on the same area of your body.

You try looking at your injuries, but it’s hard with the armor you’re wearing. Hunter spots you struggling and comes over to help you shakily remove your armour from that area. Underneath is a gross assortment of blood, dust, torn flesh and broken scales. How annoying. At least you had a high pain tolerance from years of training with your mother.

Hunter takes one fast look at your injuries before his eight eyes snap back to your face, “That doesn’t look good Y/n…”

You can only assume he’s sensitive to looking at injuries, so you try to reassure him, “It doesn’t feel as bad as it looks. Can you help me get to my brother? He’s a healer.”

Hunter scooped you up carefully with his scarves and carried you to your brother, who’d just passed off Frisk to the princess and was looking at you with something that screamed concern and also ‘ _ what the heck did you do to get that? _ ’ You could only offer a tired, apologetic smile in response.

“I still have some healing items in my phone. Let me get them.”

You pull out your bag of Monster Candy and your last remaining bandages.

“Okay I can use these bandages, but you’re going to regret eating all these candies later, so those are getting saved.” Naya assessed.

You had 7 bandages left and Naya let you have two candies, each healed 10 HP. You were currently at 45 HP. After applying the bandages and getting your HP up to 135 HP, the dust stops forming in your blood and the bleeding slows down. Naya takes this time to start healing your wounds and closing them up. You try to focus on something else as Naya works on your three major hindrances. You started with the sweet orange taste of your candy, but it fades all too quickly. You try your luck with striking up a conversation with Princess Athena, a spotted, bipedal leopard monster.

“Hello Princess. How’ve you been?”

“I’m a little out of breath from the journey up here, but I’m doing quite well, thank you. What’s your name?”

“Y/n Draco, Second Captain of the Royal Guard Ma’am.”

“Please just call me Athena, Y/n,” She turns to her burned older sister, who’s being healed by Azlan, “Even the Guards want to fight you, Reina. I think you need to repeal a couple laws.”

Reina returns her statement with an exhausted growl. They really were siblings.

You think Athena looks very regal with her own baby blue robed, with a Delta Rune on the chest area in white.

Naya manages to just get you back to full HP before he needs a break from using his magic. Athena apologetically ends your conversation and goes over to her sister to help heal her with Azlan. You move over to sit with Frisk out of everybody’s way and he points out the odd new scales you have.

Looks like you had a scar. Where you’d been slashed, you had maroon/reddish-purple scales instead of your usual crimson, orange and gold set.

“Do I at least look cooler?”

“Hell yeah.”

…

Everyone is healed and from Naya’s shoulder, Willow tells you all the plan.

“Alright everyone, I’m here to channel the Soul’s energy into breaking the Barrier. Frisk, I will need yours, but don’t worry, I'll give it back to you. Any questions?”

“...”

‘No questions? Awesome. Everybody get ready to get the hell out of this place.” Willow announces.

…

Everyone is gathered behind Willow, who sits on the ground in front of the Barrier. You all watch anxiously as she begins absorbing the Souls and growing taller, even Frisk’s is absorbed and he turns a little green. You can see dust particles and slivers of silver float into the Barrier room, towards the growing figure, from the throne room.  When the transformation ends, before you stands not Willow the blue rose, but instead  _ Princess _ Willow of the Monsters, a bipedal black panther monster, with glowing green eyes. She wears similar light blue robes like Athena does, but the Delta Rune is black instead of white.

“Will?” Reina whispers in disbelief.

The new monster raises her left hand to the Barrier and places it into the glaring mass of magic. You feel the room tremble for a moment before cracks start finding their way onto the Barrier, starting from Willow’s hand. The Barrier keeps cracking, like it’s under a lot more strain than just one monster pushing on it.

“Shield yourselves!” Willow calls, and you take that as your cue to grab Frisk and Naya and summon your own small barrier around yourself.

The Barrier finally fractures all the way, and explodes. Your own shield magic absorbs most of the impact, but it still cracks under the pressure and falls apart, leaving you to shield the children with your own body and take the blow.

Everything goes white, and you don’t feel anything for a moment. Then pain explodes from your back, like you hit something, and your mind goes out like a light.

…

You blink. Once. Twice. Three times.

You wonder how many times you’re going to be injured today, and sit up, shrugging Naya and Frisk’s bodies off your chest and carefully setting them on the ground. You can see the other monsters already up and about. Why didn’t they try to wake you up? You feel the back of your head and several parts of your back throb and you notice you’re very close to a wall. That explains the unconsciousness. You eat one more of your monster candies to make up for it.

You notice Willow no longer looks like and adult monster; instead, she’s reverted to about her teen years, still in her stripes, but a little older than Frisk. Her robes have changed to a light green and black striped dress and she’s staring in wonder at the lack of a Barrier and the view of light pouring through the tunnel on the other side. You shake your little brother and your friend awake at the sight of the light _literally at the end of the tunnel_. Naya wakes up first and drowsily looks around before noticing what your woke him up for. Frisk is a little slower, but his grin as the sight.. Or rather… lack of sight of the Barrier, is a proud one.

“Hey guys get up! The Barrier’s gone!” Willow tells the three of you.

“We noticed!” Frisk called back.

“Awesome job!” Naya cheered.

...

“Attention all monsters and human present! I advise you to all go and get what you need for the surface now! Before we leave! ‘Cause I’m sure none of you ever want to come back!” Princess Athena announces.

Everyone in the room laughs at her message but scrambles to leave, except for you, Naya, Frisk and Willow.

“I’m going to go visit Avery’s grave one last time. You want to come with me Frisk?”

“I don’t see why not.” And they leave.

Now it’s only you and Naya left, “You want to stop by my house? I think I’ve got the least to pack.”

“Sounds good. Then we go get Mum and Dad?”

“Even better.”

You walk to the door of the now ex-Barrier room and open it for your brother. Instead of walking through he freezes.

“Are you okay?” You ask him.

He doesn’t answer and steps through the open doorway. Weirdo. You follow after him. Now you understand why he froze.

This isn’t the throne room. This is the living room of your house.

…

Frisk and Willow ran as fast as they could, hitting as many elevators as possible in place of long paths, eventually finding the river and calling a boat to get them to Snowdin. They tell everyone they passed that the Barrier was open and to start packing to leave. The Underground fills with overjoyed monsters, but also ones rushing to grab what they need and leave as soon as possible.

Frisk and Willow continue their dash through Snowdin and the snowy forests until they eventually hit the Ruin’s doors and Willow keeps the lead as they backtrack their earliest steps through the purple walls of the city of Home, aka the Ruins.

Finally, the two kids reach the first area, with the patch of blue roses Frisk fell onto in the very beginning. Willow silently points at the boy standing in the rose patch and mouths “Avery.” They keep walking until they’re both standing in the roses with him.

“Ave?” Willow asks.

“Hi Will. I’m glad you made it back!” The boy smiles at her with pride, “And who’s your friend?”

“I’m Frisk.”

“You have a last name?”

“De’Font.”

“Wouldn’t you know it, that’s my last name too.”

Avery… De’Font? Like your million times great grand uncle, twin brother of your million times great grandmother, the boy who vanished?

“Avery De’Font, twin brother to Mary De’Font?”

“Ah yes. I haven’t seen Mary in forever.”

Frisk and Willow share a Look™ and turn back to Avery.

“So what you’re saying is you’re part of Frisk’s family, but also adopted into my family?” Willow confirms.

“Yep. I’m glad both my families can be happy now. You’ll be free,” He pointed at Willow and then turned to Frisk, “and you will bring back the magic you’ve wished for.”

Frisk couldn’t like: He did love magic, and he loved the monsters.

“Thank you, both of you.” Avery says, before he fades away into the sunlight, and all Frisk and Willow are left with are the blue roses.

“Did you know… You can’t find blue roses on the Surface? It’s even difficult dyeing the white ones blue.” Frisk murmurs.

“I guess I should take some up with us.” Willow replies as she picks a couple.

Then they turn around and make their way back to the castle, through the chaos of monsters packing their lives up to escape the dark caves they’d been imprisoned in.

….

When the two children get back, having to navigate through a gathering crowd of monsters waiting to be lead out, there’s six human children among the other waiting monsters in the ex-Barrier room. Naya had given back any items that belonged to fallen children, and Frisk followed his example. Reina found any items the children didn’t have and gave them a formal apology for their mistreatment. She was forgiven and Frisk goes to introduce himself to the new children. While this was happening, Frisk returned the golden locket and Dagger to Willow, since that’s who’s room the items were found in.

You and Naya carried some bags of food collected from your house and anything else you immediately needed was stored in phone inventory space. All the monsters had realized they could move furniture out later, but they should bring the essentials now. Naya asked Frisk if he would be the monster’s Ambassador, which he agrees to, and Naya runs to tell Reina and Athena about their new political help.

“Is everyone ready?” Reina called, and received several positives.

She begins leading your first group up the tunnel where you start to breathe the Underground’s first breath of fresh air in centuries.

“Welcome to Topside!” Athena announced, and you all went silent in awe.

It was the perfect time to leave the Underground. It was just the beginning of sunrise and you could still see the stars, as well as the beautiful colours painting the sky, caused by the new day. You and your brother lean on each other as you cry. You were overjoyed, relieved, shocked, and so much more. You couldn’t help but be a little overwhelmed. You take out your phone and take a picture of the sunrise from where you stand, then another, of the stars this time. Then another of the city beginning to rise for the next day of work.

And the last, a picture you asked another monster to telp take, of you, Frisk, Willow and your brother, standing in front of the sunrise and the early morning human city. You’re wearing your favourite shirt and a pair of jeans with your usual boots, and you’re covered in bandages, but you’ve never felt better. Naya is dressed in his usual poncho. Frisk is still in his blue and pink striped t-shirt, with his flannel tied around his waist. His messy hair looks even wilder in the mountain breeze, but it works. Willow has her green and black dress, her hands holding the small bouquet of blue roses, and a small green bow clipped to a section of longer fur on the top of her head. The timing on the picture was perfect. It caught Naya’s hair and the skirt of Willow’s dress swaying in the wind, and all of your proud grins.

It was time for the fresh start on Topside that every monster dreamed of, but you would be the first to achieve, with Frisk De’Font as your Ambassador.

The future has never looked so bright to you.

…

**TWO YEARS LATER**

…

It was not easy. The humans freaked out plenty when they realized there was an entire civilization pouring out of the mountain. Frisk brought you and Naya into town and you met his family. It was an incredibly large family of Mages who were willing to help you integrate into society. Frisk and his family fought hard to get you all the same rights as humans, including fair laws on magic use. Magic was allowed for common use and traditional celebrations as well as self defense, but magic assault would give a monster the same sentence as it would a human assault charge.

The monsters were restricted to tent cities all over and at the base of the mountain. Some even went back into the mountain to wait out the blockade in their own homes. The first monsters to be cleared were the Boss Monsters, as many of them were in positions of authority. This included your family, the Dracos and the Royal Family, the Felios.

Monster friendly housing was being built, with help from monsters like your father and human architects. Those houses would have stronger walls, monster body accommodations, like higher or lower sinks, cabinets etc, and magic utilities that monsters could use.

Did you mention many of the monsters were very wealthy for human standards? Gold was incredibly valuable to humans and banks began adding G exchange programs. There were entire new neighborhoods being built for monsters. People called them the monster districts. Some were built with lots of resemblance to sectors Underground, so monsters would have a simpler transition.

Your house was on the larger end and bore a resemblance to Waterfall area. It was covered in large windows and skylights, because there was no way you were missing out on seeing the beautiful sky now, since you’ve fought so hard for it.

...

Today was the day you finally finished moving in. It had taken a while, but you finally got every piece of furniture from your old house into your new one, and even bought more to make up for the lack that you had. This included mattresses and drawers for guest bedrooms and bathroom utilities. Most monsters didn’t need bathrooms, but you had a feeling Frisk would be visiting quite often. And who knows, you might make a lot of new human friends who might want to come over.

....

Speaking of guests, your house was big. So big that it started to feel lonely, since Naya mostly lived with your parents and only came to visit when he was free from school. Frisk came over even less, with his duties as a political head taking up much of his time.

Your solution: Get pets. You did some googling to find common pets you could afford to care for and set off to buy pet supplies.

…

A week later you brought two animals home from a shelter.

A rag doll cat named Angel, and a black cat the shelter couldn’t put a breed to, named Void. You liked that name. It suited her absolute inability to be caught clearly on camera. Angel was the cat least likely to launch herself at your face when you came home. Void made it a habit to jump scare you the moment you set both your feet inside. You quickly learned how to catch and close the door behind you as soon as you got in.

While Angel was very quiet and well behaved, Void was extremely chatty and gave you a reason to buy cat towers and a lot more toys, since she didn’t like sharing. Naya always asked for pictures of the two of them and always had one stuck to him whenever he visited.

…

You felt weird. You had a lot of magic build up since the Barrier broke. You  **[CHECK]** ed yourself once, and brought out your Soul for a quick inspection. Instead of seeing the usual white, upside-down heart, a fifth of your Soul had that same swirling black and white the Barrier had. Great. More exploding things you get pieces of stuck in you. The only changes it brought was higher magic endurance and two new tricks you learned. One was the ability to track Souls, a specialty you reserved for Angel and Void.

The other was an odd magic that you’d never heard of before in magic books. You called it “Taking A Shortcut”. It was easier when you used it with doors, from one place to another, but you could just as well use it anywhere. You just needed to have either been there before, or know the address. Shortcuts were teleportation. If you brought someone with you, they needed to close their eyes for it to work, but it only took a blink of time to work. It was pretty fun at first, until you realized you were the only one who could do it. It was cool, but probably dangerous if it went wrong. You still hadn’t told anyone but your little brother, in fear of the word getting out. Naya  _ loved _ the Shortcuts, although you kindly asked him not to tell anyone about it, since you didn’t want to answer questions you didn’t have the answer to.

On the plus side, you didn’t have to spend money on a car for a while, much less need to take a Driver’s test, although some pushing from Frisk finally made you attend classes. Luckily for you, you were mostly the same shape and height as humans, not counting your horns. It meant that you could take a human class, but need a vehicle manufactured larger for your height and attuned to your magic. You, being a quick learner, got your Driver’s License, then a Motorcycle License, because you wanted a motorcycle instead of a car. Most monster vehicles were made to run on magic to keep the air cleaner.

Your motorcycle was like that. You didn’t take it out often, instead, reserving it for special occasions (Like when you picked up Naya or Frisk, on nice days. You bought both of them their own helmets to keep for days like that. One half of Naya’s helmet was pastel green, while the other half was baby blue. Frisk’s helmet was navy blue, with a bright red stripe down the middle of the top, like a mohawk.). The motorcycle was black with two orange stripes on each side, and if you looked closely there was gold splatters on parts of the stripes. The bike was also tuned to your magic, so only your could turn it on. Your favourite part, was being able to take Shortcuts with the bike. You could do all your own stunts in an action movie at this point. You tried not to do that often though, in case a part fell off, or it wore out the bike faster.

...

Today was different. You’d been called to a meeting at the Monster Embassy Building for reasons your mother refused to say. You took your motorcycle to calm your nerves and the building thoughts in your head that told you it was some sort of emergency. You cam dressed in your uniform and didn’t bother with the armor as this was likely an emergency and required you immediately. You did grab your own helmet though, which had special holes for your horns on the top and was also black with two orange stripes.

You noticed a moving van at the house next to yours on the way out and made a mental note to look out for your new neighbors when you came back.

…

You think the Embassy building is pretty cool. It has statues of You, Naya, Frisk and Willow, who’s holding her flower form in a pot, standing outside the building. You four have been written into monster History books as the ‘Freedom Four’. So many people recognize you on the streets because of this statue. It reminds you of the pictures you took from when you first left the Underground. The one with the four of you in front of the sunrise.

…

“Is everything alright?” You asked as you entered the reserved meeting room, giving the standard salute (right fist places on your left chest area, where the ‘heart’ would be located on a human, followed by a quick bow) to your mother, Athena and Frisk.

“Everything is fine. We have good news to tell you this time, Second Captain Y/n.” Athena assured you.

It was June now. Frisk was now 16, but he still had the childlike excitement written all over his face, for whatever you were going to be told.

“May I ask what the good news is?”

“You’re getting a promotion.”

But you’re the Second Captain? The only place above yours is…. Your eyes widen as you look at your mother, who holds a proud grin on her face, and she explains.

“I heard you bested the Empress in combat. Got her all the way to 8. Right after taking a nasty attack in her last turn. I know you’re at the responsibility level to take over the Guard from me, the only requirement left was Strength, which I was preparing to test you in. You proved to me you were strong when I was told you took down Reina with a special attack.”

“But I had Frisk with me?”

“Yes, but who attacked first between the two of you? You also had to dispense healing items for the both of you, and you landed the heavier hits, including the one that knocked out a huge chunk of her strength.” Athena reminds you.

“I… I suppose so… Is she mad at me?”

Frisk snickers, “I don’t think so. She’s quite impressed actually, hence this meeting. She couldn’t make it due to other responsibilities though.”

You breathe a sigh of relief. You don’t like fighting Empresses, you won’t lie.

Your mother removes her Captains badge from her own uniform and walk up to you, pinning it to yours, with the rest of your badges. She removes your Second Captain badge and gives it to Athena.

“I, Mercia Draco, hereby surrender my position as Captain of the Royal Guard to my Second Captain, Y/n Draco. May you serve the monsters well. I think now is the time I finally retire to an Advisory position.”

“Th- I accept my position. Thank you for the Promotion.”

“You’re welcome, Captain Y/n. Meeting adjourned.” Athena responds, “We’ll let you know when to meet later to appoint the new Second Captain.”

You are dismissed, and to your surprise, Frisk walks out with you, “Want to go Celebrate at Hunter’s?”

“Stars yeah, I got so nervous I’m starving now.”

Did you mention Hunter opened a business up here? It was a wonderful pastry shop called called Spider Cafe. It was your favourite place to buy treats at, also because Hunter may or may not have found out you liked orange flavoured sweets and added some new treats to the menu.

When you walk in, Hunter is working behind the counter, making more pastries since there’s no customers at the moment.

“Y/n Dear! Frisky! How’ve you two been?”

“I got a promotion Spidey! I’m the Captain now!”

Hunter skates around the counter so you can go share a celebratory hug, “That’s amazing Dear, I’m so proud of you. I know you worked hard for this.”

“Hell yeah I did, Spidey. We’re here for Victory Sweets, can I bug you for some?”

“Always. Orange everything for you and Double Chocolate for Frisky?”

“You would be correct,” Frisk confirmed.

....

Hunter went on break after he finished your food, and the three of you caught up over snacks.

“Hey Y/n, my cousins are moving into this city today! I’m pretty sure they’re moving onto the same street as you!”

That reminds you of the moving van you saw at the neighboring house, “Wait, is it 364 Waterfall crescent?”

“How’d you know?”

“That’s one of the houses right beside mine. I saw a moving truck in the driveway as I was leaving this morning.”

“Well then I guess you’ll be seeing a lot more of the De’Fonts soon. I’ve got the rest of the day off. Do you want to go see if they need help unpacking?”

“I don’t see why not. You got your helmet?”

“Um always?”

…

So here you are, standing on the front steps of your new neighbor's house, in front of the teal door, waiting for someone to answer. You kept your hands in your shorts pockets to hide your fidgeting.

“Hey Sans! Papyrus! It’s Frisk! Open Up!” Your friend yells.

You hear a muffled “i’m coming, i’m coming…” from behind the door and a moment later, a guy who looks to be around the same age as you opens the door.

He’s shorter than you, probably 5’9-5’10 (but you’ve gotten used to everyone being shorter than you, as you tower over most monsters excluding the Empress), and he’s a little taller than Frisk. He has the same bronze skin as Frisk, the same wavy hair, and the same wide smile, but the resemblances end there. His eyes are bright blue instead of the warm reddish brown of Frisk’s eyes, his hair is white as bleached bone, and his shoulders are broader. He’s wearing a blue hoodie, a white turtleneck, basketball shorts and old Nikes.

You wish you felt as comfortable as he looked.

“you didn’t tell me you brought a friend?”

“Sans, this is Y/n, Captain of the Royal Guard. She’s one of the people from the Embassy statues, and she guided me through the Underground and fought the Empress with me. Y/n, this is my cousin Sans.”

“is that seriously the entire introduction I’m getting?”

“Yes.”

“you know how bad that makes me look, right?”

“Why do you think I did it Sans?”

You’re… A little lost.You try to stand out of the way while the two of them take verbal shots at each other, unfortunately for Sans, it looks like Frisk is winning.

“SANS, WHO’S AT THE DOOR?”

“it’s just Frisk. he brought a friend over!” Sans calls back, “so whatcha’ doing here? i doubt you came for funsies.”

“I live next door. Frisk brought me to ask if you guys needed help moving in.”

“WELL I FOR SURE AM NOT GOING TO SAY NO TO HELP.” The body the louder voice came from popped up behind Sans.

This human is much taller and lankier compared to Sans, pulling no stops at probably 6’10, around the same height as you, his hair is still wavy and white as Snowdin’s snow, but you can see there’s been an attempt to keep it tidier. His eyes are a warm orange colour. (You didn’t know humans could have orange eyes?) He’s also wearing a white shirt, but he’s also wearing a bright red scarf around his neck.

“Y/n this is Papyrus, he’s a police officer for this area and he helps out at gyms. He’s one of the strongest Mages in our family.” Frisk inputs, “Paps, this is Y/n, the strongest monster who ever lived-”

“Wait- you’re a Mage and Frisk, I am not!” You interrupted (just ‘cause you can beat the Empress in a match does  _ not _ mean you’re the strongest).

“Strongest monster, “Frisk continues, much to your embarrassment, “She guided me through most of the Underground, saved my life on several occasions and fought the Empress with me.”

“WOWIE. YOU’RE THE ONE WHO KEPT OUR LITTLE COUSIN IN ONE PIECE DOWN THERE! THANKS FOR THAT! WOULD YOU LIKE TO COME IN? I NEED HELP WITH THE FURNITURE.” His voice  _ booms _ .

Papyrus leaves the house and waves you towards the truck. He points out a sofa, table and sets of chairs, telling you which ones he needs in the house first.

“Alright, I can do that,” You smile.

You turn to the furniture and begin floating each of the items Papyrus pointed to, out of the truck and you let them float above you until everything you were assigned was out of the truck.

“Alright Paps, lead the way- Papyrus?” He’s staring up at your cloud of furniture in shock.

“I CAN ONLY FLOAT LIVING THINGS OR MY OWN MAGIC. YOU CAN DO INANIMATE OBJECTS?”

You shrug, “Eeeehhhhhhhn? Magic.”

….

Papyrus walks you through the house and points out the places he wants you to set down the furniture. In an hour the truck is empty, and Sans takes it to go pick up the next load of whatever the brothers need in their new house. You ask him if he wants your help, and he declines.

Now you’re sitting in the half furnished TV room of the brothers on the same sofa you helped lift in, with Papyrus and Frisk.

“Hey Y/n, did you hear my friend Felix and Adrian are roommates now?” Frisk mentions.

“I didn’t. Are they both saving up money for Uni?”

“Yep. Quincy’s helping them out when he can. I have an uncle, his name is Mettaton, who’s also trying to make it big out there.”

…

You help the brothers move in and you swap phone numbers. Now you have two contacts, one named **MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS** and the other **snas**.

Papyrus invites you over two weeks later for spaghetti and movies. You don’t have anything to do and enjoy his company, so you go. Sans has popcorn ready for the movie, while you and Papyrus cook pasta

“hey can you two hurry up? it’s long  _ pasta _ time for the movie to start.”

Cue enraged screams from Papyrus, plus his betrayed, shocked looks when you let a giggle or two loose, “DON’T ENCOURAGE HIM!”

“I’m- _pffffk_\- I’m so-_rry_ Paps I _can’_-t,” and you die laughing (RIP).

...

His spaghetti is  _ to die for _ . You really enjoy your cooking time because a) you learn something new, b) you get to teach Papyrus about monster food and utilising magic in recipes, and c) you get  _ delicious _ food out of it later.

The movie you’re watching is The Spy Who Dumped Me, an Action/Comedy movie. You are not let down.

…

One movie night becomes two. Two becomes five. Five turns into fifteen. Fifteen turns into routine. Every friday night you scoot over to your neighbours house for a movie, one time you even brought Naya.

“i didn’t know you had a kid.” Is Sans’s first words upon seeing your brother.

Naya bursts out laughing while your brain shuts down at the assumption and you have to explain to Sans that: “No I’m not a mother, I’m too young for that, I can only handle cats. This is my little brother Naya, he met Frisk before I did.”

…

April is rolling in, and you’ve been busy with helping to plan the first Freedom Festival for the monsters. It was supposed to be a three day event, with a carnival like theme, fireworks, dancing and speeches from each member of the Royal Family, Frisk, Naya and You. There was supposed to be food stands and street venders and the Ebott city Mayor would be making an appearance as a show of human support.

You have to tell Papyrus you can’t make several movies and cooking nights. The first time he was very understanding of your situation, as he sometimes gets called to work at outrageous times, but when it kept happening, you could hear him start to get worried.

One month later, you get three days off from the planning, as your mother told you to go take a nap and she’d take care of it for.

“But I’m not in my stripes anymore, I’ll be fi-”

“Don’t give me that, Y/n. Just because you’re not a child doesn’t mean you don’t need sleep anymore. I’d rather you do a slower, but better job and get the rest you need, than you do a sloppy job that’ll catch up to you later and then have you fainting from exhaustion.”

“Ah… I… Okay then?”

So you head home, and give Paps a call saying you’re finally free, if he wants to hang out. You haven’t even put down your phone when you hear the doorbell ring. When you let them in, Sans has this weird look on his face you’re too tired to decipher. They brought a movie with them, Nausica of the Valley of the Wind. It’s a Ghibli one, so you expect only the best.

You finally get a good look at your reflection when you pass by a bathroom. Your hair looks messy, your eyes look dead, there’s bruise like bags under them and your scales all look dull and flaky. Paired with your old, over sized t-shirt that hung off of your body and the worn out, loose shorts that you’d hadn’t had time to change out of, you can understand why Sans had a weird expression.

You lead Papyrus to your kitchen and grab all the things you’ll need for the pasta he likes, but instead of you working together, he kicks you out, back to the couch where Sans uses his magic to cover the both of you in a blanket. He then starts the movie. You can’t escape now.

“What about Papyrus? We shouldn’t start the movie without him…”

“he told me to. now sit tight and  _ wind _ down, we have a movie to watch.”

Later, Papyrus brings over the spaghetti he made, he’s even infused it with magic so you can eat it. You’ve been teaching him how in your past cooking nights. He’s already cleaned up the kitchen and everything he used is in the dishwasher, running as you spoke.

So there the three of you are, with the occasional company of one or both of your cats. Eventually you drift off into the most solid nap you’ve had for a month. You don’t even wake up when the TV is turned off.

…

You don’t really wake up fully for a while. It’s a slow progression. You regain consciousness, but your thoughts are barely coherent. That eventually turns into being able to think clearly enough to decide not to open your eyes or try and wake up fully. At some point, it feels like someone took your blanket, so you make an annoying sound and get your warm blanket back.

You keep hugging your pillow for a while before you realize it smells like… Ketchup? Why does your pillow smell like ketchup? You open your eyes to investigate and you quickly learn that what you were sleeping on is  _ 20000% not your pillow _ .

You were sleeping on Sans. Whatever face you must have made was clearly a very funny one, as Sans snorts and covers his grin with one hand, but you can feel the laughs in his chest. Speaking of, you practically launch yourself off of your friend and start apologizing for getting  _ way _ into his personal space.

Sans only laughs harder, and you start to smell something cooking. You follow your nose to the kitchen, where Papyrus is making breakfast. This is…  _ too domestic _ for you. Or maybe you’re too used to being the one making breakfast, usually for Naya or Frisk.

“GOOD MORNING Y/N. I HOPE YOU ENJOYED YOUR SLEEP, IT LOOKED LIKE YOU NEEDED IT.” Somehow his voice isn’t loud, but still keeps your full attention, which is the preferred option considering you’ve just woken up.

You catch sight of your cats eating from their food bowls. He’s even made breakfast for your cats. How sweet. You owe him treats from Spider Cafe.

“I did. I hope I didn’t kick you or anything, I’m an active sleeper, if that makes sense?”

“DON’T WORRY, I DIDN’T FEEL A THING. CAN YOU WAKE UP SANS FOR BREAKFAST? IT’LL BE READY IN A COUPLE MINUTES BUT SANS ALWAYS TAKES FOREVER TO GET OFF OF WHATEVER HE’S SLEEPING ON.”

“Do you want me to set the table while I’m doing that?”

“NO, LEAVE THAT TO ME. I’VE GOT THIS ALL COVERED.”

You shrug an ‘alright’ and walk back to the couch, where Sans is still lying down, despite his cheerful episode from a couple minutes ago.

“Sans, Paps is making breakfast, we gotta go eat.”

“nhhhhh. maybe.”

“Come on Sans! It smells heavenly, and I don’t care if you’re used to your brother’s cooking, I’m hungry.”

“meh.”

“Sans, don’t make me take _drastic measures_.”

He begins to close his eyes again, “what're you gonna do? pick me up and throw me?”

His eyes are fully closed now. This is your chance. You grab him and Shortcut to the Dining room door, just out of sight from the kitchen, but relatively close to the TV room.

“Well. I did pick you up. See?”

Sans opens his eyes, still being held like a teddy bear (your arms around his torso, lifting him up) and you hear an ‘oh come on!’ in surprise. **<strike>Worth it</strike>**. You put him down gently into one of the chairs around the table and he turns back to you. True to Papyrus’s word, the table already has three plates, empty glasses, and sets of cutlery on it.

“how’d you do that? i’m positive i was lying on the couch a second ago!”

You smile and place your finger on your lip, in the “shhhh” gesture, “I dunno, magic.”

The twitch of his eye and the flat expression make this trick even funnier, “i will find out one day, Y/n, just you wait.”

“Sureeeee....” You smiled at him, just as Papyrus came rushing in from the kitchen, carrying several plates and bowls of food.

"i'm serious!" Sans calls, but you're far too distracted by the heavenly looking food that's just been presented before you.

You swear it’s a buffet he’s cooked instead of breakfast. There’s bacon, eggs, french toast, breakfast sausages and steamed broccoli and green beans. You don’t know where, but he’s also found orange juice, milk and the Spider Cider you kept for a special occasion you couldn’t name when you bought it. He manages to balance all of that, plus serving spoons etc, to the table and gracefully set each dish down.

“Oh my stars Pap, where’d you learn to do that?”

“WELL PART OF IT IS NATURAL TALENT, BUT THE REST IS EXPERIENCE WORKING IN SEVERAL RESTAURANTS IN THE PAST!” He reports.

“You need to meet my friend Hunter.”

“I CAN’T WAIT TO DO SO, BUT NOW IS THE TIME FOR EATING, SO GET MOVING YOU TWO.”

…

You stayed with the brothers through all three of your days off, and told them what had kept you for so long.

“The upcoming Freedom Festival in June. It’s sort of like the 4th of July event the Americans have, but less like a ‘we won a war’ kind of celebration. It’s more to celebrate the breaking of the Barrier and all the progress monster’s have made since and because it’s so personal for monsters, there won’t be many humans there, unless they’re +1s or family. I’ll be speaking there with some other influential characters and I’ve been asked to help plan. There’s… So much to coordinate. I’ve only organized Guard related events before, so I’m not as used to this yet… My friend Quincy does events all the time, but he’s also busy with this, so I can’t ask him. It’s really been a huge learning experience for me.”

“SOUNDS LIKE YOU’RE WORKING VERY HARD TO MAKE THIS THE BEST FIRST FREEDOM FESTIVAL. I’M SURE IT’S GOING TO BE WONDERFUL. THE ONLY DOWNSIDE TO DOING A GREAT JOB IS CONSISTENCY.”

“As one of the main speakers, I have a couple +1 tickets. Do you guys want to come as my guests?”

“o’course we do Y/n. i also want to meet some of the people Frisky mentioned from their stories of their visit to the underground.”

…

Sans and Papyrus send you motivational texts in the mornings and at night. They’ve been motivating you to keep up your hard work, but also reminding you to not burn yourself out. Sans’s are mostly puns, while Papyrus’s are usually things like how doing your best is the greatest thing you can offer and even if it’s hard, getting out of bed is better than not moving at all. Is Papyrus a motivational speaker in his free time or something?

…

It’s a hard month, but you get your work done. You even have enough time to check it over for errors or colliding schedules. You decide it looks good, and drive it to the Embassy building. You notice the name plate for your statue has been changed from ‘Y/n Draco, Second Captain of the Royal Guard’ to ‘Y/n Draco, 47th Captain of the Royal Guard’.

Nice.

…

A week before the festival, you take your motorcycle to your dad and ask him to help you attach a sidecar, since you can only safely fit two people on the bike. He makes you on and teaches you how to take it on and off, before you put it in your phone inventory and take it home.

You send a text to Sans and Papyrus when you get home, telling them that you’ll have a ride ready for them on the day of the festival. You then text Frisk asking him if his cousins have motorcycle helmets. You get a ‘no’ as a response, and your goal for the next day is to find helmets for your guests.

…

After two hours of store hopping, you can say, with great confidence, you’ve found the perfect helmets. The one for Papyrus is a black helmet with a cartoon-ish white skull and crossbones on it, while Sans’ is a soft pink colour with ‘helmet’ written on it in black comic sans font. The only thing missing… You add a sticker of a fluffy white dog to the pink helmet, near the visor. Perfect indeed.

…

The day of the Freedom Festival arrived, and you, in full formal Guard’s uniform, with some of the armor, walk your motorcycle, now with a sidecar in the same colours, into your neighbor's driveway. You texted Papyrus to let him know you were waiting with the ride.

**YOU** : I’m here.

**MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS** : WE’LL BE OUT IN A MOMENT

True to his words, two minutes later, Sans and Papyrus leave the house. You notice that Sans has kept his blue hoodie and white turtleneck, but switched his basketball shorts out for black skinny jeans in an attempt to clean up. Papyrus has an orange t-shirt and cargo shorts, his signature red scarf still tucked around his neck.

Didn’t most humans overheat dressed like that in June heat? They looked fine so… Perhaps it’s the Mage capabilities.

You’re pretty sure you caught Sans’s eyes sparkle at the sight of your bike, so you pass the brothers their new helmets.

“Alright, who wants to ride on the bike with me, and who wants to sit in the sidecar?”

“I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT SANS HAS ALWAYS WANTED TO RIDE A MAGIC VEHICLE, SO WHY DON’T YOU RIDE WITH Y/N, AND I’LL TAKE THE SIDECAR?”

“sounds good to me.”

You get on to the bike and give the quick list of bike rules while the brothers get in.

“1, Keep your hands and feet inside the ride, or at least not outstretched at all times. 2, Whoever rides on the bike with me has to keep a firm grip on something, and not let go, unless the bike comes to a full stop. 3, there’s microphones and headsets installed on the inside of your helmets, they only pick up voices, so we can talk, but there’s no screaming allowed so I can dive safely. Deal?”

“DEAL.”

“deal.”

“Awesome, let’s get to the Festival.” Sans hooks his arms around your waist and Papyrus buckles himself into the sidecar, giving you a thumbs up.

You let your magic flow through your bike and smile when it’s engine roars to life.

…

The ride is smooth, and you listen to Sans and Papyrus excitedly discussing what they wanted to do and see at the festival. You cruise through the city, which has posters all over the place for monsters, telling them it’s the third anniversary of the breaking of the Barrier. You can see other cars, buses and sidewalks filled with monsters making their way to the festival. It looked like there would be an enormous turnout.

…

You parked your bike at the slowly crowding parking lot outside the park being used for the festival activities, although some roads nearby had been closed for a parade coming through later. You hoped you'd be able to find it in the dark later tonight so you could get your friends and yourself home.

“So this is the fairgrounds area, with the vendors and the games, if you look over there, you can see the signs pointing to that street, where the parade will be coming through. The signs also list the parade route. I’ll be in it, and I need to get going soon, so I’m dropping you off with a friend of mine who’ll keep you out of trouble while I’m gone. Once the parade finishes, my friend will take you to the fairgrounds and I’ll meet you somewhere there. Sound good?”

Once you get the affirmatives, you start using your magic to track down Hunter’s Soul. Once you find Hunter, you give the brothers a brief a brief introduction and the same for Hunter. Then you check your phone and you offer a quick goodbye before sprinting off to meet the rest of the parade before it began.

…

“Sorry I’m almost late!”

“At least you made it,” Naya says.

The members of the parade are clustered in another section of blocked off road. First, a marching band would go through, then the Royal Family’s float, then you, Frisk and Naya after them. You improvised your ‘float’, so that the three of you would ride Forge Blasters, except for Naya, who decided to use his own Obliti-Blaster (he had them too? That was cool). You had a couple targets you would toss in the air for your Blasters to fire at, and you three were allowed to zip ahead, or farther back, as long as you stayed on route.. Behind you was Quincy and Lana, with their own music float and some monsters who would follow them, with flashier magic tricks and acrobatics. Finally, the last section of the parade was your father, on his own float, with magic cannons that launched magic that formed colourful mist and white lights that looked like brightly coloured galaxies in the air around him. There would be the rest of the marching band following him.

You summon your Blasters, one is smaller for Frisk, while yours isn’t quite as large as the one from the Barrier fight, it’s still pretty big. Naya’s is the smallest of the three, proportionate to the size of each rider. It’s a horse skull instead of a bear’s like yours. You also tell Frisk how to steer the blaster, since you had a feeling he’d have a lot more fun if he could control what he did.

“And no flips if you can’t hold on.”

“Okayyyyyyyyy. Fineeeeeee.” Frisk pretends to complain.

…

The three of you keep to your standard formation for a little bit, before Frisk asks for a blasting target. You oblige, and lift one into the air, away from the crowd and give the okay to fire. The crowd breaks into louder cheers as the target is obliterated, and you repeat this a couple more times before you three decide to race up ahead to the Royal float. Your blaster is the fastest, and for effect, when it stops by the float, it does so by barrel rolling mid-air into a stop. The onlookers laugh at that, and your two younger teammates, not to be outdone, start doing spirals and loops.

You turn back and race towards your father’s float, this time, you leave a trail of magic bullets to follow you. When your father sees you, he waves and calls out to you:

“Stop stealing my thunder!”

“Neverrrrrrrrrr!” You sang, as you waved back, and also to the crowd.

After that, you decided, why not go the full distance? You used the bullets you summoned to create a to-scale bear skeleton that walked behind your Blaster, which you flew in a slight bouncing pattern to match the gait of the bear skeleton behind you. Every once in a while the Blaster would break away from the body, and the bullets would drop to the road, like falling water, and disappear, only for you to re-summon them in a couple minutes.

When you saw Hunter, Sans, Papyrus, Azlan and Andrew you caught Hunter’s eyes so he would get the rest of the group’s attention. Then once they were all looking at you, your reformed the body and threw a couple targets out to fire at. Frisk and Naya burst through after, playing what looked like a game of Blaster tag. Papyrus waved at you enthusiastically, while Sans looked at your blaster in surprise. You did neglect to tell them what you had in mind for magic performances. Hunter and Azlan cheered, as did most of the crowd, and you moved on after you caught Andrew’s terrified look at the disintegrating targets.

…

When you reached the end of the parade route, you and Naya dissolved your blasters and did some stretches to get rid of the stiffness in each other’s bodies from spending the entire parade in a similar position on the tops of the blasters.

“I think that went quite well.” Frisk comments.

“I think we were....  _ A blast _ .” Naya adds.

The three of you snicker a bit before you split apart to find your families. Frisk looking for his parents, while you and Naya looked for yours. It’s not hard to find your father, since he was packing up your float. Naya says he’ll stay with your dad and you move on. You activate that nifty tracking power you have and you can see your friends in a group by a flag post with a Delta Rune banner attached. From what your eyes tell you, they’re standing on one side of the flag post watching a tossing game. You could walk up to them and greet them like a normal person or…

Yeah you’re gonna Shortcut and scare the crap out of <strike>Andrew</strike> your friends. You duck behind a tent and Shortcut right behind Andrew and greet them.

“Hey-”

“AUGHH!” Andrew shrieks, and you’re pretty sure you heard a squeak from Hunter.

The rest of the group just spin around in shock to see you laughing at your successful jape. Andrew does not look like he enjoyed the experience as much as you did. Sans is looking at you with a ‘It happened again’ kind of expression.

“Did you guys enjoy the parade?” You ask when your laughter dies down.

“ABSOLUTELY! YOU LOOKED SO COOL ON YOUR GASTER BLASTERS!” Papyrus vocalized.

Gaster. You feel ill at the mention of the name, “Gaster Blasters? Nah, those are my Forge Blasters and my little brother’s Obliti-Blaster.”

“OH… ALRIGHT.”

You wish Sans would stop looking at you with the face one makes when they’re trying to solve a difficult puzzle. You decide to ignore the look, and walk around the fairgrounds with everyone for a bit until you have to go get ready for the speech event. Your group jumps between games and food vendors, Hunter says next year he’ll have to bring his own stand to sell pastries.

“WAIT IS THIS THE HUNTER YOU MENTIONED TO ME OVER BREAKFAST TWO MONTHS AGO?”

“Yup, same guy. He’s the owner of Spider Cafe, my favourite treat place. I swear he knows how to make a Spider Cider that fits with any meal you have.”

“Aww Y/n dear you talk about me? How sweet.”

“Of course, I talk about all my friends.”

You hear Sans cough and mumble ‘oof’ under his breath. You’re glad you made your point. You catch Andrew about to say something on the topic, but as soon as he sees you looking right at him, he makes the smart choice of closing his mouth and looking at his feet.

When your group moves on Sans walks beside you, but starts walking slower so you walk at the same pace and leave a gap between the two of you and the rest of the guys.

“what’s up between you and Andrew? is he like your ex or something?”

You scrunch your face up in disgust, “Nah. He’s been a jerk to me since we were kids, and I’m starting to lose my patience. It’s his brother I dated. We didn’t even have a nasty break up. Azlan and I are best friends and have been for years. I just gave him that last look because the last time he made a comment about who I liked, it was insulting a dead monster. You can imagine why I wasn’t going to let him add his own two cents about it in this conversation.”

“oh. i thought he was kinda cool. i guess i was wrong. now that you mention it though, he does get really… tense whenever you come by. thanks for telling me, buddy.”

“No problem.”

…

7 pm hits and you realize that if you want to make it backstage with enough time to spare running over your lines, then you’ve got to go now.

“Damn. I’ve gotta go get ready for the next event. I’ll see you guys there?”

“WHAT’S THE NEXT EVENT? WHERE SHOULD WE FIND YOU?”

“Speeches! At the massive stage that way!” You point in the direction you’re running, “I’ll see you later!”

…

Backstage you can already see Empress Reina, Athena and Willow practicing what they want to say. Soon Naya and Frisk run in too and start bouncing lines off each other to help remember lines and phrases they intend to use during their speeches.

That leaves you by yourself. You do your best to remember what you want to tell the audience, and hope to the angle of the underground, that you don’t freeze up.

…

You can hear the monsters on the other side of the curtain. Your own stomach fills itself with ice and the crawling feeling of anxiety. Your gut drops even lower when the other members of the speakers begin to walk onstage, past the curtains.

You try your best to absorb what the three leaders of the monsters are saying, you really do try. Your nerves are getting the better of you though. After you is Naya and Frisk, so at least you won’t be last, but you still need to step up to the podium when called.

“And now, a short story from our very own Captain of the Royal Guard, Y/n Draco.”

Well Shit. You immediately shut down any doubt you have in yourself and walk up to the podium. You are calm, composed, and happy. (you aren’t)

“Good evening, everyone. I’d like to tell you the story of how I met Frisk, and also of my adventure with him, my little brother, and Princess Willow.” You begin.

“I wasn’t the Captain of the Guard when this story started. That position belonged to my mother, Mercia Draco, at the time. So picture me, three years ago, the Second Captain, accompanying my mother to a meeting with a Sentry who was supposed to capture the recently fallen human. You know who you are. That monster was actually a close friend of mine I planned to hang out with after the meeting and my patrol ended. Instead, he tells me: ‘Don’t tell the Captain, but the human doesn’t deserve to be killed.’ You can imagine my shock. I was even more surprised when my own brother confirmed he’d befriended the human, and begged me not to tell our mother about him.”

Naya sends you a sideways glance at that last part. That's what happened, you don't know why he's looking at you like that.

“I don’t know how, but between my best friend and my brother, they convinced me to guide my brother and the human, Frisk, out of Waterfall. Then my older sibling instincts kicked in: I couldn’t just leave my baby brother and his new friend at the entrance to Hotland and go back to whatever I was doing! So I kept guiding, all the way to the castle. Now during all this, Frisk had a friend from the Ruins, a blue rose monster named Rosey. We didn’t know at the time, but that was our lost princess. Our lost princess passed through the Underground in Frisk’s backpack.” You heard a couple chuckles from the audience from that.

“When we reached the castle, we sat down for tea with the Empress, and she delivered the unfortunate news: Rosey and I had committed treason against the crown and would likely be executed for it, while she would have to take Frisk’s Soul. She did however, give us time to wrap up loose ends. It was during that smaller adventure that we learned of Rosey’s true identity- that’s a story for next year- and when we came back, I was sure this was the end for me. I made some ‘this might be the last you hear of me’ type calls and Frisk and I faced the Empress. It started okay and we did try to talk it through, but that didn’t really work.” The Empress gives an apologetic shrug for that part of your story.

“It all started going wrong when Frisk ran out of food to heal with. I needed to split whatever I had left to keep the both of us alive. I think it was after I had a nasty slash to the stomach that I finally called a special attack strong enough to end the fight. We thought, ‘this was it, we’re going to have to kill our Empress, this just keeps getting worse’. But we didn’t. My brother, Naya halted the battle and separated us so we could be healed. Then my brother and Willow took the Souls and finally had us listen to reason. Willow absorbed the Souls and broke the Barrier. As someone who was there, I can certify that Frisk didn’t die, he did turn a little green though.” More laughs from the audience, you can see Sans in that group of those laughing.

“No one came out unscathed. I still have three scars on my stomach, the Empress has three burn scars and Frisk has plenty of knick scars that didn’t quite heal right, even with three healers there. My point after all this? One simple escort mission from my friend turned into the liberation of the Underground. I met up with old friends and ex lovers and even helped some other friends reconnect after a couple years. I expanded my capabilities and learned a lot of new things, and here I am now. Two years after we escaped, I settled into the home I always dreamed of, I have two pet cats, and I’ve made more incredible friends. Then I achieved my lifelong dream of becoming the Captain of the Royal Guard. All because I didn’t want to leave my little brother alone, because he didn’t know the way to the Capital.”

You take a breath, “My point is that we are all capable of changing the world for the better. We just need to keep trying, no matter what stands in our way. You change the world every day by just existing. Now imagine what we could do if we put all our energy into our dreams. My dream was to find a better world for my family, and now we’re here, Topside, so I think I did pretty alright. I wonder what you can all do, maybe you’ll liberate another civilization. Thank you all for having me.” You salute the audience and step back from the podium, the clapping and cheers from the audience deafening you.

With that, you tune out the last speeches and eventually walk off the stage. It’s likely around 9 and that means it’s time for the dance floor openings and fireworks.

…

Magic is shot into the air by magic cannons, lighting the dance floor enough for everyone to see, but not so bright that the stars are unseen. Music starts to play from an unknown source and bodies start to move, while others pair off or vacate the dance floor to watch the fireworks. You track down your friends in the mobs of dancing monsters and the occasional human.

As soon as you found your group again, you were pulled into an enthusiastic dance with Papyrus. It’s fast, confusing and leaves your lungs at a loss and you love it. Soon you twirl yourself away to the Lynx brothers, where you end up doing some sort of three way swing. You forget Andrew’s attitude for tonight and dance with him and Azlan, like the three of you used to before you and Azlan got together. You do have to move onto your next partner eventually, but you give Az a nice scratch behind his ear before you leap to Hunter. You pretended not to notice Andrew’s shocked look from your preferential treatment.

The music changes to something slower and Hunter is all for it. You just roll with the punches, because you’re here to have fun. You stand and sway with him for a while, hugging and cracking jokes.

“So how was Sans and Papyrus? They didn’t cause you any trouble did they?” You asked.

“Okay 1, they were just fine, I loved talking to them, my dear, but 2,  _ we’re kinda having a moment Y/n. You can ask them later, but let me have this. _ ”

You wouldn’t argue, just this once. When the slow song finally ended, you stepped away from each other and moved to your next partners, yours being Sans. Oddly it was another slow song. Slow songs aren’t often played twice in a row. But it seems to be fine with Sans, as he’s ‘too lazy for a high energy dance anyways’. His words.

His head rests right under your chin as you two sway, leaning on the other person and just having a somewhat quiet moment among the crowds of talking monsters

"Thank you for this dance. I'm glad we could just.... be calm for a bit."

"me too Y/n. i really liked coming out with you and Paps."

What a beautiful night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> What did you guys think of the Freedom Festival? Tell me in the comments. I personally really enjoyed writing this first part.
> 
> And we finally saw our boys, Sans and Paps. Thank you Frisk for finally getting things going. We owe Frisk many thanks.


	4. Festival Ghosts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The festival lasts three days, so you want to make the best of the experience with your friends.
> 
> You learn your friend is getting an upgrade, and Sans and Papyrus win stuff for you. You also learn a little bit about Frisk's siblings. But you get an inconvenient and unpleasant visit from your favourite missing monster.
> 
> You also find even more reasons to recall your Uni years.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Don't mind the lack of info on Quantum Mechanics, because Author knows jack about Quantum Mechanics.
> 
> and sorry for the shorter chapter than usual, there's only so much i wanted to fit into this chapter that keeps things on a good pace.
> 
> beware of lots of dialogue, as per usual.

You wake up with that wrong feeling of hot and cold that always followed a nightmare. Why were you having another nightmare? You don’t remember having any new food or experiences the night before. Luckily, whatever you’d been dreaming about was quickly fading. Something about being watched… But you feel like it’s better you don’t know, for the sake of your already strained mental health.

Instead, you switch your main concern to the Pile Of Human on top of you. You’re lying down on the couch, head on the couch’s arm, feet propped up on the other side of the couch. Papyrus is lying right on top of you, with his head resting on one of your shoulders, and his feet hanging off the other couch’s arm. Your arms are half around Papyrus’s shoulders and your hands are resting on his back. On top of Papyrus, is Sans, who instead of lying out flat like the rest of you, is curled up a little on his side. This whole scene would be cute, if you weren’t having a bit of a hard time breathing.

Your solution is to turn their Souls blue, gently float them off of you and escape to your room, where you can shower.

You can remember leaving the Festival late last night, after the fireworks finished and all of you weren’t feeling like dancing anymore. You texted Frisk and Naya to make sure they got home okay, or had a plan to get home safe. After your concerns were met with a satisfactory answer, you and your human friends located your motorcycle and headed back to your place. Although, instead of separating into your own houses, the three of you ended up crashing on your couch and here you are now. You can’t remember how you all came to be like that on the couch, but nobody’s dead, so you don’t question it too much.

Your feet felt a little odd from all the standing and walking you did the day before, but you could keep going.

…

When you get back downstairs, the brothers have made themselves at home, not unusual since they often came over for sleepovers before you got busy. Papyrus is looking through a photo album from one of the many shelves you have in the TV room. You can hear some commotion from your kitchen, and assume Sans is cooking breakfast this time.

You Shortcut behind Papyrus, “Is the Great Papyrus snooping?”:

“WAHHH!” Papyrus drops the album in surprise, which you manage to catch with your magic before it hits the ground, “I DIDN’T EVEN HEAR YOU COMING! YOU MUST BE EXCEPTIONAL AT SNEAKING UP ON PEOPLE!”

You smiled at the compliment, “That I am, Papyrus.”

“I’M SORRY Y/N! I’VE DISRESPECTED YOUR PRIVACY AND LOOKED AT SOMETHING VERY PERSONAL WITHOUT YOUR CONSENT. I WILL ACCEPT ANY PUNISHMENT FOR THE STRESS I CAUSE YOU!”

“What? I appreciate the straightforward apology Paps, I was joking. Whatcha lookin’ at?” You assure him as you pick up the open album and look at the immediate pages.

One picture is one of your family, standing in front of the Lab, still Underground. Another picture is you, Quincy and Lana, before Quincy got his body. There’s a picture of you and Ivan posing in the candy shop in the Capital. The last picture is your father holding a baby you, while standing beside another monster, whose face is unfocused and almost missing all details.

“Ooooh these are old ones. Which one were you looking at?”

“OH UH- THAT ONE.” Papyrus points to the one of your father and the unknown monster.

“That’s my Dad, the Royal Scientist. He’s got a new Lab up here too. The other monster is his mentor, the Scientist before him. That’s me when I was just a little baby dragon monster.”

“OH YOU’RE SO CUTE! AND THAT’S YOUR FAMILY RIGHT? YOUR MOTHER LOOKS SCARY… I SEE WHERE YOU GET IT FROM!”

That is not typically a compliment, but the way Papyrus says it makes it sound like an accomplishment. He makes you feel like you’re cool for being intimidating.

“Thanks?”

“what’s Y/n got?’

You turn to look at Sans, as he walks into the TV room carrying leftover spaghetti and some seasoned chicken breasts, “Well I can see you’ve got food.”

“i’m a hero, am i right?”

“Ah yes, thank you, handsome Sir Sans. What would Paps and I do without your lovely service?”

“so what’re you two looking at?”

“Y/N’S PHOTO ALBUM. THERE’S SOME REALLY COOL FAMILY PICTURES IN HERE, AND SOME WONDERFUL FRIEND PHOTOS.”

“is there baby pictures? your dad talks about you all the time at work.”

“Wait you work at Ebott Area Labs?”

“yep.”

“WELL YES THERE’S ONE ON THIS PAGE.”

“Hey! You guys don’t need to pass my baby pictures around. Can we at least eat first?”

Sans shrugs and hands you a plate, with a fork already on the plate. You thank him and shovel some spaghetti into your mouth. It’s got magic in it, and it dissolves in your mouth. You raise an eyebrow at Sans, who shrugs and pops open a ketchup bottle and lays some on the noodles.

“What’s with you and ketchup?”

“it’s a personal preference. mind your business and eat the food i reheated for you so we can get ready to get back to the festival.”

After you finish your meal, Sans and Papyrus went back to their house and showered, got new clothes, and come back smelling better and on Papyrus’s part, looking more comfortable than before.

…

You arrive at the festival at around 11 am. You’ve also brought more money with you this time so you and the boys can play more games at the fairgrounds area. You are very good at shooting games, like throwing darts and hitting targets with water, while Papyrus is surprisingly good at the strength games (for example, the game where you hit a scale with a hammer to see how high you can rocket a sliding object and hopefully hit the bell at the top). He wins you a large, round cat stuffed animal, which you named Luna, or Lu. Sans is ‘too lazy to play’ and vanishes for a moment during your gaming spree. He does come back shortly after with Nicecream for all of you.

“‘You are an incredibly hard worker! Your efforts will pay off soon!’ Well it’s not wrong about the hard working part.” You are careful to keep your new stuffie out of reach of any melting Nicecream while the three of you have a snack break.

…

Later you catch sight of Frisk and call out to him. He tugs another child with him when he comes over to greet you. This child looks to be about the same age as Frisk, but a little paler, with similar messy brown hair, rosy cheeks and bright red eyes.

“Hi guys! Y/n, this is my twin sister, Chara! She’s a mage like me.”

You offer a smile and a wave, but rather than return your greeting, Chara sizes you up and offers a non committed hum, “So you’re the monster who’s one of those statues in the front of the Embassy?”

“That’d be me.”

“I saw you dancing last night. Couldn’t tell which person you danced with was your boyfriend though, you only slow danced with that guy with a bunch of eyes and Sans.”

“You watched all of that?”

“Call it Child’s Curiosity. I want to know who my family member’s new friend is.”

“Fair enough. I’m not dating anyone currently. All the people I danced with are friends of mine. ‘That Guy With A Bunch Of Eyes’ is my friend Hunter. He runs a pastry cafe called Spider Cafe. I’d recommend it for the Orange Spider Doughnuts.”

“You sure he’s not your boyfriend? He looked pretty comfortable. Naya says he heard flirting.”

“You know my brother?”

“Yes he’s mine and Frisk’s new best friend, now why’d he hear flirting? I want details.”

“Stars, I feel like this is more like an interrogation than a friendly first conversation. Basic background story is that Hunter’s always been a flirt. He’s really lonely and he does it so someone pays attention to him. Most of his family died in the War and his last relative fell down shortly after he was born, so he’s never had a lot of love from anybody. He also has a hard time with finding the difference between romantic and platonic relationships. He learned how to flirt from watching human movies that he found in the Dump, and it became his thing. What Naya called flirting is the only way Hunter seems to know how to talk to his friends.”

“Interesting. You’re positive he’s not into you?”

“Nope, it’s just the trauma.” You promise.

“Well congrats. You passed the honesty test. We’re swapping numbers now.”

“Alright then?”

Phone numbers got swapped and you made a new… ally? Were you friends? You didn’t feel like you were friends? You’d figure it out one day. Maybe be friends in the future.

…

You look at your new contact **Chara De’Font**, and decide to tell Papyrus what’s on your mind, “Your cousin scares me.”

“CHARA IS QUITE ASSERTIVE AND CONFIDENT. I KNOW SHE’LL MAKE AN INCREDIBLE LEADER ONE DAY. SO DON’T MIND HER, SHE’S SIMPLY CURIOUS, LIKE FRISK.”

“I guess…”

Your phone vibrates and you pick it up to see that Naya’s texted you a picture. It’s of him, Frisk and Chara posing next to a statue, in the same position, in what you can assume is a museum.

**BABY BROTHER**: Chara told me you just met

**BABY BROTHER**: I hope she didn’t scare you

**YOU**: Nah, I’m unshakable after the Empress

**BABY BROTHER**: Is that a challenge

**YOU**: Not unless you want me to send Hunter’s pet after you

**BABY BROTHER**: Point made. Ttyl?

**YOU**: Ttyl baby bro

**BABY BROTHER**: Don’t call me that

...

You decide to text Frisk instead.

**YOU**: How many siblings do you have? You don’t talk about them much

**MCFRISKY**: I have Chara, my twin and my older brother, Asriel

**YOU**: That’s cool, maybe I can meet your brother some day

…

“is Hunter really that lonely?”

“When you say it like that, it sounds like he’s a shut in anti-social. But yeah, Frisk and I are the only friends that I know of.”

“can i have his number? he’s the one you got the sweets from, right?”

“Yep, same guy. Can I have your phone for a moment?’

Sans hands you his phone, and you type down Hunter’s number in a new contact named **Play Nice You Two**.

“really?”

“Prepare to have an attempt to seduce you made. I better not hear you used him for free food.”

“do you think that low of me?” Sans wears an overdone, hurt look.

“I don’t, but don’t prove me wrong either. Hunter’s a nice guy when you get past the annoying flirting.”

“at least i’ll feel valued.” He argues.

“There’s that, but you don’t need flirting to know your valuable. You’ve got me and Paps for that.” You reminded him.

“touche.” Sans says, then shows you the new contact name for Hunter.

New Contact: **ArachNerd**

You tried your best, but failed to suppress your laughter at the name, and Sans’s grin grows prouder.

…

You three don’t spend the entire day at the festival this time, instead you head out for dinner at a Chinese place that has monster food (food with magic in it to help monsters stomach it) on the menu.

“I DON’T MEAN TO INTERROGATE YOU MORE THAN CHARA DID, BUT I REALIZE WE DON’T TALK MUCH ABOUT OUR PERSONAL LIVES, LIKES, DISLIKES, ETC, DESPITE BEING FRIENDS. WOULD YOU MIND IF I ASKED YOU SOME MORE QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL LIFE OVER DINNER?”

“Only if I get to ask you my own questions.”

“THAT’S FAIR. WOULD YOU LIKE TO START?”

“That’s fine with me,” You know Papyrus works as, or with the police, “So why’d you join the Law Enforcement field? I can see you running a Restaurant.”

“I’VE LOOKED UP TO THE OFFICERS SINCE MY CHILDHOOD, AND TRUTHFULLY, I DIDN’T FEEL LIKE I WAS DOING ENOUGH TO HELP THOSE AROUND ME, AND SUPPORT THOSE I CARED ABOUT. SO I BECAME AN OFFICER TO HELP KEEP EVERYONE SAFE AND TEACH OTHERS HOW TO MAKE HEALTHY DECISIONS. I COULD BE A CHEF, BUT I FEEL LIKE I’LL DO MORE HELP AS AN OFFICER.”

“That’s pretty cool, to be honest. You take making an impact very seriously.”

“THANK YOU, NOW IT’S MY TURN. WHY DID YOU JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD?”

“Aw man, it’s been so long since I’ve thought about that. I think I first started because I admired my mother, and wanted to be just like her. Strong, capable, independent, safe, like a hero. Then my father encouraged me to prioritize my education first, since knowledge is never wasted. So when I started my first job in the Guard, I was just out of Uni and a faster thinker than many of those at the same Sentry level as me. As I moved ranks I started to think a little more about why I was doing what I was doing, as I gained more responsibilities and experience. I had stopped idolizing my mother at that point, like many adults do, and wasn’t so sure about my career choice anymore.”

“THAT SOUNDS CHALLENGING. RECONSIDERING YOUR PLANNED PATH.”

“It was. With a degree like what I had, I could just as easily have gotten a job at the Lab with my father, or gone back to school to be more qualified in many fields. I didn’t though. Because I really thought about how I could make the Underground a safer place for Naya, and maybe his family one day, since I didn’t think we’d ever escape. So I stuck by my job and did everything in my power to make the Underground safer, which included pushing many to consider post secondary education, because as my mom and dad always said: education is never wasted.”

‘whoa. what’d you go to uni for?”

“Quantum mechanics…”

“i went for quantum physics and quantum mechanics too. i guess we’re science buddies now too.”

“CAN I ASK MY NEXT QUESTION PLEASE?”

“Sure.”

“CHARA WAS AWFULLY INVESTED IN YOUR ROMANTIC LIFE, AND IT MADE ME CURIOUS. COULD I ASK WHO YOU’VE DATED IN THE PAST (AND MAYBE HOW YOU MET)?”

“Sure. The first monster I dated was Azlan. We’d been friends since forever, and wanted to try out what everyone seemed to be talking about: romance. We were together for about a year, before we mutually split, because we weren’t sure what we were feeling was simple friendship or actual romantic connection. Andrew got pissed at me for some reason and hasn’t let it go since then.” Sans’s eyes light up in recognition to the story you told him the day before.

“After that, I met Lana and her cousin Quincy, who hadn’t become a star yet. I dated Quincy for a couple months and we decided we made better friends. Two years later I went out with Lana. We lasted another two years, but I left Waterfall to attend Uni and we could just never meet up anymore and calling wasn’t doing enough. So we broke up.”

“YOU DATED QUINCYBOT?” Papyrus squeals.

“We were practically neighbours. And this was before he was a robotic TV star, and we both had some love for drama, although he liked it more than I did. The last person I dated was a monster named Ivan. We met while I was shopping for Candy in the Capital, for Gyftmas, which is sort of like your own Christmas holiday. We became fast friends after we bumped into each other and sort of stuck to one another. We loved reading the same books and had the same sense of humor and we contrasted each other well. They were calm while I was angry and passionate. Ivan was more logical than I was, but they did not enjoy confrontation. We sort of bounced off one another and learned from the other. I became calmer and more tolerant, while they became more confident and stood up for themselves more. I considered the monster equivalent of marrying Ivan. We were dating for five years before… They got really sick. Ivan went to a doctor, and was told they had EFDD, or Early Falling Down Disorder. It’s an incurable sickness that speeds up the falling process.”

“i don’t mean to interrupt, but what does ‘falling down’ mean to monsters?” Sans asks.

“It’s what happens when a monster dies of old age. They get really tired and sick, before they go comatose and eventually dust. The stage where a monsters dust is our version of death. EFDD is like ah…. How do I explain it…. It’s like being diagnosed with late stage, incurable cancer to you humans. They tell you how long you have until you fall asleep for good, and how long you have after that, before your body fails you.”

“Ivan was dying? what did you guys do after?”

“May as well have been. They only had three more months left to live, and Ivan would spend all of them in a sick, tired state. So we bounced between meeting their family and doing things together. We revisited the candy shop where we first met, we went to all the places they’d ever wanted to visit. We even got to go to the only patch of sunlight in the entire Underground, in the Ruins. Eventually, while we were on our last trip, to Ivan’s childhood school, they just… collapsed...”

“STAGE TWO?”

“Yep. I visited their family every day to ask if I could help in any way. They always just smiled and told me that I’d done more than enough already, by being there for them in those last months. One day, I rallied the courage to say my last goodbye to Ivan’s body. I remember sitting in his room and holding their hand, and halfway through what I was saying… Ivan’s body fell apart. I screamed and… I wasn’t ready for any new attachments for a long time. That was five or six years ago, or about three years before the Barrier was broken.”

“that’s horrible… i’m not very good at this, sorry.”

“It’s cool Sansy, I suck at emotional stuff too. Welp, that’s my tragic backstory. Now I’ve got a question for both of you: I want to hear who you’ve dated.”

They’re silent for a moment and the brothers look at each other with a sheepish expression, and Sans is silently elected to speak for the two of them, “uh alright so… neither of us have… dated anyone before… so uh our turn?”

“I’VE HAD CRUSHES ON PEOPLE BEFORE, BUT I NEVER ACTED ON THEM. I WASN’T ASKED OUT BY TOO MANY. I ALSO REJECTED ALL THE CONFESSIONS I RECEIVED BECAUSE I WASN’T REALLY INTERESTED…”

“and i was too shy to act on the small amount of interests i had… and i wasn’t asked out… like… ever…”

“I don’t know how nobody asked you out ever Sans, but go off I guess. Do I get to ask another question?”

“nope, it’s our turn. what’s your favourite food and why?”

“Cheap ramen noodles because a) it’s cheap, b) you can make even better dishes out of them, and c) I like ramen. It’s what I lived on in Uni and my dad got me hooked when it was the only food he had in the Lab once when I came to help out.”

“AREN’T YOU ONE OF THE HIGHEST MEMBERS OF AUTHORITY FOR THE MONSTERS? COULDN’T YOU AFFORD LESS CHEAP FOOD?”

“Cheap, Papyrus, Cheap. Now let’s eat and keep talking later.”

…

When you got back to your house, Papyrus ran to the TV room to prep for your movie night, while Sans pulls you aside to speak privately.

“hey... i noticed you don’t sleep well. like sure you sleep, but you always look troubled. are you doing okay?”

“Are you sure you want me to unload even more emotional garbage on you?”

“Y/n i work in a lab studying Souls, with your father and a lady named Alphys, who’s one of the most brilliant minds up here, and had my older brother disappear mysteriously when i was a teen. whatever you’ve got, probably isn’t as horrible as you think it is, or the worst thing your think i’ve seen.”

“Alright then. Story time. When I was little, and my mother couldn’t take care of me, my dad took me to the Lab so he could look after me and keep working. As you might have heard, there were two major levels of the Lab, the Main Lab and the True Lab. Where my dad worked most of the time was the True Lab, with his mentor, and Royal Scientist at the time, Dr. W.D. Gaster. I got bored while I was playing and followed them to where they were working.”

“i think i can see where this is going.”

“Yeah. I watched as my dad’s mentor spoke his last words and... The machine they were working on exploded and shattered him. I got hit with two pieces of his Soul and gained some odd new magic. Everyone forgot him, except for my dad and I. Later I learned my brother got hit too, but nobody was there to see it and he was too young to understand. Paps pointed out our Blasters as ‘Gaster Blasters’, which freaked me out a bit. On my trip with Frisk through the Underground, I saw him again, behind a gray door in Waterfall, and when we found the True Lab I confirmed that I saw him speak his last words as a child. And now I’ve been having nightmares about him again for a couple weeks.”

“that’s odd, my brother’s name is Wing Dings Gaster Le’Font.”

“Oh my stars…”

“I HAVE THE MOVIE UP! ARE YOU TWO DONE SUSPICIOUSLY TALKING IN LOW TONES?”

“Yeah. What’s tonight’s movie?”

“godzilla: king of the monsters.”

You raised an eyebrow, and Sans explains the title,“this movie came out half a year before you guys left the mountain.”

“I’ll take your word on that. It better be good.”

…

Okay, so, you’ve learned you like movies about giant creatures fighting each other.

“did you like it?”

“Hell yeah.”

“then i think you’ll like Pacific Rim.”

…

The guys head back to their own house that night and luckily you have a night without any dreams at all and wake up feeling decent and energetic.

On the motorcycle ride to the festival for the third and final day, Sans is oddly quiet. Usually he asks a couple questions about the bike, which you can only answer with “In theory”s, since you don’t know the ins and outs of magic vehicles. Although he does find other questions, like what the Underground was like, what you helped with in the Lab, stuff like that.

But today he’s quite, and instead, Papyrus is the one talking the most. When you get to the festival, Sans sticks close to you while Papyrus gets out of the sidecar.

“did you sleep okay?”

“Yep, like a baby. Nothing happened last night.” You say proudly.

“that’s good to hear. maybe it helps when you talk to someone about it?”

“YES, IT’S ALWAYS HELPFUL TO TALK TO OTHERS. EVEN IF I’M NOT SURE WHAT YOU’RE TALKING ABOUT.”

“Thanks, Pap.”

…

You’re taking a shade break on your own when Lana floats down beside you.

“Hey Fishy. How’ve you been?”

“Pretty good Lana, so those human’s over there? They’re my friends.” You point to Sans and Papyrus, who are playing some sort of throwing game while you take a break.

“Well I’m glad you’re adjusting well and meeting new people.”

You smile, but you can tell Lana is more tired than she lets on.

“Are you doing alright? Did the planning exhaust you and Quincy too?” You see her deflate even more, now that she knows you know.

“Uhh absolutely. But there is some good news,” she continues, “Dr.Bryn is making me a body like Quincy’s!”

“Is that what’s been keeping you up? Stars! That’s awesome! Do you know what it’s going to look like?”

“Not yet, but I’ve been up late helping him draft. The only parts I’m worried about is losing my ability to vanish and walk through floors and walls. That’s some of the fun parts of being a ghost, you know?”

“Knowing my father, he can probably make a body that can phase through walls and turn invisible. So just let him know you want those features and it should be fine. But oh my gosh, this is… Stars, this is fantastic news! I can’t wait to see it!”

“Yeah. I’m glad you’re just as excited as I am, but could I ask that you not tell anyone? You’re the first outside person I’ve told, as I kind of want to keep this on the downlow?”

“You got it. I never heard it from you.” You laughed and made the ‘zipping your mouth shut’ action.

The two of you talk about how your own stressful planning periods were like. She and Quincy had been in charge of planning the music, the dance, the fireworks and the float designs of the parade. You’d been working on security, safety measures for the vendors, how to make sure attendees got in, and where emergency services would be stationed, in the worst case where someone was badly injured.

Needless to say, you were able to tell Lana that nothing from Emergency Services had been administered except for small bandages, often for younger monsters and humans that tripped and got scrapes, but nothing near serious health concerns.

Your conversation was interrupted by Papyrus calling out to you, “Y/N! Y/N LOOK AT WHAT WE WON!”

Papyrus was running towards you, holding Sans out in front of him, and Sans was holding an _ even bigger _ stuffed animal than the one from the day before. This one is another round cat stuffed animal, but it’s half of Sans’s height.

You jaw drops and Lana looks at you, “Where’d you get friends so good at carnival games?”

“I didn’t know…” You answered.

“here,” Sans says as Papyrus sets him down in front of you, “now you can have four cats.”

“THIS IS FOR YOU!”

“What? Are you guys sure you don’t want to keep it? You’re the ones who won it.” Do you even have room for this cat? What if Void decides it’s time for destruction?

“we’re thinking of getting a dog soon, and we don’t want this cat getting ripped to shreds, and besides, you’re a cat person.”

“I guess? I can’t argue with that.” And Sans passes the giant cat to you.

“isn’t this such a _ clawsome _ gift? _ cat _ you see we’re the greatest?”

“SANS.” Papyrus looks ready to off his own brother.

The brothers start their own conversation, which is mainly Sans telling cat puns and Papyrus screaming at him. What a lovely day.

“Are they always like this?” Lana whispers to you.

“Pretty often, yeah. Sans loves puns.”

You decide to keep laying there, and eventually tune out the argument. Lana is also resting quietly beside you. Your Extrovert Emergency Battery has been draining for three days and you’re getting physically tired as a result. You don’t even notice you fell asleep until you open your eyes again and the sun is on the other side of the sky, which was barely tinged pink.

You sit up from the grass and look around. You’re still laying under the shady tree and you’re still holding your new stuffed animal. Nobody’s here. The festival grounds are completely empty. It’s only you and your giant cat stuffed animal. Your friends didn’t leave you behind did they?

“Sans? Pap? Where’d you go?” You called out, but nobody came.

Your hand reaches for your phone in your pocket, but it’s dead. That’s odd, it was on 50% when you last checked, and it could last another day and a half on that charge. You keep walking around, wondering if you’ll find your friends. Unless you’re sure they caught a ride home, you shouldn’t leave without them.

“Lana? Quincy? Is anyone here?” You kept calling out, but there was still no response and no sight of another person anywhere, so you decide to turn back and find your motorcycle.

As you walk by a tented event, namely a tented maze, you hear the sound of a metal object falling inside. You take a moment to lament how you’re about to become the first horror movie victim, and enter the tent to investigate. Who knows, it could be a trespasser. Inside the tent, there’s no light and your night vision kicks in. The tent has nothing in it, like every section of the maze that had been set up in the tent was packed away already. That made no sense, clean up was tomorrow.

You took a moment to find what fell, and while you don’t find it for a while, you do eventually find the fallen paint can. It’s just a paint can, and the label reads ‘Plum Purple’. There’s no shelf, or stack for it to fall from, and nothing hard enough to cause the sound of the paint can to ring out. There was just… grass. As you reach to pick it up, you notice there’s a paint puddle around it, swamping the grass to a degree, maybe the can leaked when it fell? Now that you have a closer look, you know that can’t be the case. Whatever the puddle was, it wasn’t purple paint. This liquid was black. You avoid touching it as you slowly picked up the can with the hand not holding your stuffie.

Before you can stand up, an arm shoots out of the black goop. A skeleton’s arm, and you can’t get out of it’s grip, even when you hit it with the can. You look closer at the puddle. It’s growing and a face surfaces. It’s Gaster.

“** _Y-Y-Y-/-N-N-N?_ **”

You open your mouth to scream, but nothing happens.

…

Your eyes fly open. Your face burns and your body is cold. You push yourself up from the grass, and watch as monsters and the occasional human runs by. They’re all walking to some carnival games, or playing one already. Lana is still asleep beside you, and you can’t see Papyrus.

“hey. did it happen again?” Sans asks.

He’s holding your arm, where the hand in your dream grabbed you. The skeletal one you beat with the metal can.

“Yeah. I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

“nah, your magic did start to gather like you were going to attack something, and you started to look stressed so i tried to wake you up. could you tell me what you saw?”

“Can I have a hug first? I’m… I’m not feeling so great…”

“i’ll have you know i’m a great hugger, c’mere bud.” Sans says, and pulls you into a solid, safe feeling hug.

“Thanks Sans.”

“no problem, is it okay if you tell me what your nightmare was about?”

“I woke up in my dream and nobody was here. The sun was about to set and the festival area was like a ghost town, completely empty. I kept looking for you guys and when I couldn’t find you I turned around to go find my bike. On the way there, I heard a paint can fall in a tent. When I went in to investigate, the maze that’s supposed to be inside was gone and there was just a purple paint can lying in a puddle of black- goop? I don’t know what it was- So when I went to pick it up, a skeleton’s arm came out of the puddle and grabbed me. I couldn’t get the arm off, even when I hit the hand with the paint can.”

“whoa, points for resourcefulness. i would pay to see you beat some jerk up with a paint can.”

“Thanks, but I shouldn’t be hitting people, that doesn’t make a very good leader.And I should tell you: the hand was where you were holding me, so I was worried I might have punched you in my sleep or something. Anyways, then the puddle started to grow, like there was a larger source feeding it somewhere and I saw my missing Doctor’s face in the puddle, he was trying to say my name, I think… Then I woke up.”

“well i can see why you looked so upset now. i’d freak out too if i saw that.” Sans offers.

“Yeah that’s the most realistic one I’ve had so far… Where’s Pap?”

“he went to grab some Nicecream after you first fell asleep. should be back soon. the line wasn’t that long.”

“Okay. And one other thing.”

“shoot.”

“When are you free next?”

“are you asking me on a date?’

“Well if by date you mean ‘_ going on a trip to Waterfall so I can show you the gray door room where I encountered Gaster with Frisk and the secret room in the Lab with his notes _’ then yes.”

“i’m good this weekend. meet at your place on saturday?”

“Sounds good to me. Bring rain boots and a working flashlight. It’s dark down there, and unless you want to rely on me all the time, your own light would be helpful.” Today was Wednesday, and the entire week was a holiday (Freedom Week), you could work with that.

“got it. the date’s on.” Sans says, releasing you from the hug.

“Please don’t take this seriously.”

“it’s a date.”

Oh boy.

…

Somehow, you ended up staying the night at their place, which was not uncommon. You had some extra clothes that had already migrated over to the guest bedroom you stayed in, but even with all the comforts you assigned to the thought of your friend’s home, you were still scared to fall asleep after what had happened during your nap. You did sleep anyways. A poor choice, really.

This time, you saw a man who looked very similar to Sans and Papyrus. Same wavy, white hair, same grin, similar body type to Papyrus. His eyes were purple instead of orange or blue though. Beside him, was your own Gaster, same pale, almost skull like complexion, melty and incoherent. Both wore black clothing that seemed so dark you couldn’t see where the shirt ended and the pants began, or any details at all.

They both smiled at you, in a chilling mix between looking entertained, but also like they knew something you didn’t. Then they reached towards you and you woke up like your life depended on it. You don't know why you felt so scared of them. Something just felt so, horribly, horribly wrong about seeing them. Like they shouldn’t exist.

Your magic crawled all over the room. Things became untethered from gravity and floated, flashing bullets appeared and disappeared at random. Some objects were not only weightless, but also thrown around the room too. Your own gravity began to fluctuate and your lungs stopped getting enough air when your breathed. Your curled in on yourself in an attempt to protect yourself from a threat that didn’t exist and just. Kept. Crying.

You didn’t even notice Sans and Papyrus had gotten into the room until you felt them holding you, and speaking words your mind wasn’t processing at first.

“Y/n, hey. hey, i need you to look at me. can you please look at me?”

You looked up at him, and his eyes were glowing blue and yellow, likely using his magic, “alright, you’re doing just fine. can you take a breath, just one, long, slow breath?”

You follow his suggestions and slowly, your chest stops constricting and your lungs stop catching. Your breath evens out and your body loses the tension it built up. The entire time, Sans and Papyrus were talking to you so you’d have something to distract you.

“WHAT HAPPENED? WHAT MADE YOU SO SCARED?”

“I saw them. I saw both of them. There’s something wrong about them. I shouldn’t be seeing them…”

“WHO’S _ THEM _? WHAT’S WRONG?”

“it’s G, paps. she’s got a monster version and our version haunting her for some reason.”

“BUT G’S GONE.”

“‘s what we thought. apparently not as gone as we assumed. Y/n and i were gonna go check out some places in the Underground that she found him this weekend.”

“WHEN WAS THIS ALL PLANNED? CAN I COME WITH?”

“I don’t see why not. We planned while you were out getting Nicecream, I’m sorry we didn’t tell you. I assumed you wouldn’t be too interested. Bring some rain boots and a flashlight and meet at my place on Saturday, 10 am. We’re going to Waterfall. It’s wet, dark and hard to navigate if you haven’t lived there you entire life like I have.”

…

When you woke up, Paps was hugging you to his side, and you were resting your head on his shoulder, while Sans was snuggled into your side/ front, with his head on your chest. During all this, you were hugging him like a stress pillow. Yet another awakening to a pile of humans on you. You could get used to this. It was nice not being alone. Now, every time you came over, you’d bring one of the stuffed cats the brother’s had won you, to stress hug. Usually it was the larger one, which you named Oli.

…

The weekend was here. You decided casual jeans, a shirt, your Guard boots, and a leather jacket were exactly what you needed for a return to the district (prison) you used to live in.

Sans and Papyrus arrived at 10 am, sharp, just as you asked. They both came with rubber boots and waterproof jackets and showed you they brought working flashlights too. You hand them each a Ward pin.

“This is a precaution. There are no monsters left down there, but that does not mean it’s safe for you. In the event that we get separated, I can track you down with those pins, and they bump up your defense so you can defend yourself until we meet back up.” You could track them by their Souls, but once again, it was just a precaution.

You remember giving your pin to Avner, and how happy he looked. You wondered where he was now.

“SO HOW ARE WE GETTING TO THE UNDERGROUND, AND SECONDLY WATERFALL? DO THE AUTHORITIES JUST LET YOU WALK IN?”

“They don’t, but 1, you’re with me, they’d let you in, and 2, we aren’t walking in. We’re taking a Shortcut.”

“a shortcut into an underground cavern? is it the same place where Frisk fell?”

“Not quite, now close your eyes so we can go.”

They did, you grab their shoulders and Shortcut them right to the path that had the gray door in it, “Alright you guys can open your eyes now.”

Papyrus’s jaw dropped, “IS THIS HOW YOU KEEP SNEAKING UP ON US?”

“Maybe.”

“oh so you meant _ Shortcut _-Shortcut, not slightly altered route shortcut. i can do that too. now we’re Shortcut buddies as well.”

“Nice. Now where is that door? I swear it was this way...” You only needed to say that, and suddenly the door reappeared, right in front of you, “There it is. Who wants to go first?”

Nobody answers, “I guess I’ll go first.”

The three of your carefully file through the entrance and Sans and Papyrus turn on their flashlights. Inside is the two Gasters from your nightmares. You’re filled with that horrible, horrible _wrongness_. The brothers take places beside you and you all stare down the Gasters. Sans and Papyrus immediately go on defense, their eyes glowing ominously. You summon your own magic, and a very small Forge Blaster. It’s more just to serve as a warning to the Gasters not to try any funny business. The Gasters don’t even flinch. You wonder if they can even move their own bodies. Instead of attacking, the Monster-Gaster looks at Sans and begins to make beeps, clicks and and generally the sounds of a malfunctioning computer. The Human-Gaster looks at Papyrus and copies the sound of the other Gaster. Sans begins to look dizzy and overwhelmed, you quickly adjust his gravity so that he doesn’t topple over. Papyrus’s eyes are wide, as if he’s shaken, like he’s watching a Horror Movie you can’t see, and it just got to a bloody scene.

Soon, Monster-Gaster turns to you and before you can try and defend yourself, voices and old memories fill your head. You see your father muttering while writing something on a piece of paper. It’s some kind of formula, but somehow you understand it. The next image is of you studying theories related to the Multiple Worlds Theory in Uni. You have a flash of Gaster’s demise, and of catching sight of another machine’s blueprints. Something stronger than the DT Extractor. <strike>Something </strike> <strike> _ better _ </strike>.

That’s not your voice, or your thoughts. None of the voices telling you instructions on how to build… Something, none of them are yours. You feel an outside force push your brain to start making plans, and calculating, and an idea begins to form. It’s complex and your mind runs a mile a minute to form the plans and keeps adding _ and adding and adding _. Your actual sight isn’t working anymore, and you can only feel the memories.

Then you’re back in the room. You grab Sans and Papyrus and get them out of the gray room. As soon as you’re back in the somewhat comforts of your old home, Waterfall, and not the gray room, your stress levels immediately start dropping. Your chest stops pumping fear through your magic, your breaths slow down, and your eyes stop watering. Sans and Papyrus seem to be coming out of their own reveries, and they look around and down at their still-on flashlights in confusion, like they don’t remember you forcibly removing them from the gray room.

“Everyone still in control of their bodies? Nobody’s been possessed or something?” You check.

“nope. i’m still sans. and i’m still confused…” Sans answers.

“I AM ALRIGHT. THAT WAS A VERY… CONFUSING EXPERIENCE.”

“That’s one way to put it. You guys up for one more stop to the True Lab?”

“I THINK I’M ABLE TO HANDLE THAT.”

“i’m good for one last stop too.”

“Great,” You hold out your hands to the brothers, “You know the drill.”

They grab your hands and close their eyes. When they open again, your in an even darker place. You guide them to the DT Extractor room and how to get behind the machine, into the secret room. The room is still full of papers, mostly notes and statistics, but you suddenly have the urge to… Take them with you?

“Anyone else feeling _ that? _” You ask.

“by ‘_ that’ _ do you mean the sudden and very out of character need to take this stuff with us?” Sans asks.

“Spot on.”

“ARE WE GOING TO TAKE THEM?”

You sighed, “Yep. I don’t want to know what’ll happen if we don’t.”

You also turn on the screen and let Sans listen, and it turns out he has wing dings memorized too, because he used to use the font to play pranks on people when he was little. Papyrus can’t understand the words, but he listens to the audio very carefully.

“when he says ‘what do you think, you two?’ does that mean he knew you were watching?”

“Yeah, when he turned off the recording, he looked right at me and asked. You know the rest of the story.”

“IS ANYONE ELSE WONDERING WHY THERE’S TWO GASTERS? AND WHY THEY BOTH DISAPPEARED? IS NOBODY QUESTIONING HOW THEY’RE THE SAME PERSON BASICALLY, BUT ONE IS A MONSTER?”

“Paps has a point, unfortunately, I have no idea how to answer those questions.”

“what if… what if one of them wasn’t from our universe? maybe one just ended up here somehow and made a life for himself, then magically vanished while trying to get back to where he was before, making the other Gaster go vamoose too.”

“Could be. We’ll never know. Unless… Unless we bring them back.”

“shit.” Sans sighs.

…

As soon as you return to the surface, the black patches of scales on your hip and chest start to tingle. It’s not painful, but it does make you more conscious of them. All the time. You decide to leave all the gathered paperwork in an office room in the brother’s house they had yet to use.

Then you all got together and planned the machine to bring the Gasters back. You hated the idea, but missing persons from a universe didn’t usually end well for the universe itself. And you also wanted answers and you personally wanted an apology for the several years of caused trauma. Your black scales tingled even more when you thought about the Gasters.

Speaking of caused trauma, your nightmares woke you up constantly, and only went away when you slept at the brother’s house. You ended up staying the night very often, and your clothes found their way even further into your neighbor’s house. You Shortcut yourself back into your own home each morning, and to their house every night, to avoid the odd looks you might gain from walking to and from your neighbor’s house every day.

Planning became purchasing materials. Those materials became building a machine in the brother’s basement. Building became a project you needed more help in, so somehow, Dr. Alphys and your father found themselves invited and helping in your madness. It helped that they were also some of the few people who still remembered the Gasters, and willing to try and get them back. The nervous blond lady was apparently the wife of Sans and Papyrus’s other cousin, Undyne.

This ‘side project’ took over all your free time. Sans and Papyrus never got to checking out potential dogs and you sometimes just brought your cats with you to make sure you weren’t neglecting them. Angel was careful to keep Void away from your construction space. You doled out extra treats for that later.

It was an odd system you all had, but it was a system that produced results three and a half months later. This started mid June, and now it was early November. Your brother’s birthday was coming up soon. You needed to take a break to get something for him soon, maybe you could grab your dad’s gift to your brother too while you were out. Maybe it would distract you from your scales acting up more than usual lately.

Today was the day you did that. You went to Spider Cafe to order a dozen Spider Doughnuts, half were Double Chocolate and the other were Salted Caramel. Monster food never expired, so you could buy the food early and not worry about the quality diminishing. Your father wanted to buy Naya a new poncho for his 14th birthday, since his other one from the Undergrounds was getting a couple sizes too small. Naya had been shooting up in height recently, and his shoulders were getting broader. As he was getting older, his stripes would get thinner, so he also needed a new poncho for those reasons. Your father gave you extra money to buy the poncho at a Monster Specialty Clothing Maker.

This time, instead of purple with blue stripes, you would buy Naya a beautiful black one with lime green stripes, with more pockets. It would be waterproof and this poncho also had a larger hood, with fur on the lining of the hood. There was also his name stitched into the inside of the hood. This one should last him until he leaves his stripes.

You came back and dropped off the gifts safely at your house, then Shortcut to the brother’s house, or more specifically, the basement. You hadn’t bothered to grab any Lab Appropriate Clothing, and just came in your leather jacket and some leggings. You did grab some safety glasses once you got there, and tied back as much of your short hair as you could.

“Did you grab Naya’s presents?” Your father asks.

“Yep, the stuff is at my house now, and we’ll give it to him next week. Otherwise, is everyone ready for the first test?” You ask, as you walk towards your assigned station.

“yep.”

“I’M READY.”

“I’m set up too.” Alphys confirms.

“All good on my end.” Your father reports.

“Great,” You finished the quick start up of your own area, while halfheartedly scratching at the darker scales you had, “I’m ready for action.”

Papyrus was the one powering the Machine with his own magic, since you didn’t trust that the Machine wouldn’t cause a neighborhood wide blackout. Sans would step in to make sure Papyrus wasn’t injured. Papyrus was made to promise to tell you if he started getting drained, and not try to act strong and bear it.

The machine itself was behind thick safety glass walls you’d also set up to prevent the same mistakes Monster-Gaster made. It was also connected to several monitors, including your own, which was a map of theoretically, the closest universes to yours, and some nicknames the group had come up with, which also helps them pinpoint where they’re taking an object from/sending an object to, how the travel for said item/object is going, and how fast it’s going/e.a.time. Tl;dr: You were in charge of tracking the progress of the object you’d be sending to another universe.

The machine the Machine had a main frame that looks like a pentagonal picture frame, and inside a green light, which slowly glows brighter, with the more power it syphens from Papyrus. This test was sending a rock through the machine to a universe Alphys called SwapVille.

You all waited 10 agonizing seconds before you send in a rock Sans tagged with his magic so he could track part of it on his own, and see the effects of an item moved through another universe. All seemed to be going well. You all cheered when the rock disappeared from your vision.

Then the green light of the frame turned to purple for a minute, but it’s long enough to distract you for a couple seconds, and long enough for a section of their assigned path the rock was supposed to follow to split into three, one path still remaining in SwapVille, another into a place they called DangerTown, your name idea, and one last one they’d nicknamed Switcharoo, courtesy of Dr. Bryn.

“Guys, three paths have appeared, and the rock is coming back- wait. Oh stars, there’s something coming down each of the three pathways, towards us!”

“turn off the machine!”

“I-I can’t! I’m hitting the switch, but it’s not working!”

Then it got worse, “I’M STARTING TO FEEL A LITTLE DRAINED, COULD I HAVE SOME HELP SANS?”

Sans abandons his station to your father and hooks himself up to the Machine to take some of the load off of his brother.

“I’ve got more news, each path is now sending two things down, and they’re living organisms!” You called out after another look at your monitor.

The light turns purple again and you begin to count down the estimated time to arrival of your unstoppable, otherworldly guests. Your father is covering two stations and Alphys is doing her best to keep the Machine functioning long enough for the six guests don’t sap the last of Sans and Papyrus’s magic.

“Six guests and rock arriving in 10, 9, 8...”

“THIS IS STARTING TO FEEL VERY UNCOMFORTABLE!” Papyrus informs you.

“We’re almost done Paps! Hang in there! 5, 4, 3, 2, 1…”

The purple light fizzles out for a moment, but then comes back blindingly bright and you have to turn away to keep your sight, but then everyone’s blindsided by a shock wave emitted by the Machine, and you get thrown back. You lay down for a couple minutes just waiting for your vision return. When you can see again you shakily get to you feet and notice the safety glass was blown out towards you. At least, from what you can see, everyone is still alive. Your scales have also stopped tingling, for the first time in almost four months.

“Guys? Is everyone okay?”

“aye for Paps and i.” Sans calls back.

“I think- I’m okay Y/n.” Dr. Alphys replies, crawling out from under a desk.

“I'm aliveeeeeee.” Your dad groans and you can see your dad gave a weak thumb up from his slump on the floor.

"Are you sure you're gonna be okay Dad?"

"Uhh yep."

With that confirmation of his health, you check for any leftover magic on the Machine, and find nothing. You decide to cross the frames of the missing safety glass. On the other side is six people lying unconscious on the floor. Plus the rock of course. The oddest details about the visitors, is that four out of six had white, wavy hair, freckled bronze skin, and half of the figures were very tall and the other half was shorter. They all radiated some weak magic, which confirmed they survived. Two of the visitors were skeletons, likely monsters, one wore the same sweater that Sans always did, and the other wore the same bright red scarf Papyrus always had on him in some form.

“Guys... We have an issue. Sans and Papyrus, I need you to come look at our guests.”

“alright, we’re coming.” Sans grumbles, still stumbling up from the floor, brother in tow.

As soon as they see the still un-moving visitors, they freeze.

  
“UHH YES. THAT IS _ QUITE _ THE ISSUE WE HAVE NOW…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THEY'RE HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
> 
> TELL ME WHAT YOU WANT TO SEE HAPPEN WITH THE VISITORS
> 
> OR WHAT YOU THINK HAPPENED TO THE GASTERS


	5. Brothers In The Machine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The plan was to send a rock to another dimension. Doesn't sound complicated right?
> 
> WRONG.  
VERY,  
VERY,  
WRONG.
> 
> You didn't mean to bring the others back with the rock, heck the rock wasn't supposed to come back on that trip in the first place!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THEY'RE ALL HERE BABES
> 
> PREPARE FOR TROUBLE, AND MAKE IT DOUBLE, WE HAVE CLASHING PERSONALITIES AND A RISING REVERSE HAREM PLOT
> 
> EVEN NAYA KNOWS IT! HE'S MAKING BETS.

Even in the flickering, dull lights of the basement, you could see your guests had some… Interesting fashion choices. For example, the set of skeletons, one wore the same white turtleneck and red scarf Papyrus did when you first met him, but the difference here was the black jeans and large red boots the skeleton also wore. His smaller skeleton partner was almost identical to how you first saw Sans, with the exception of instead of old shoes, this skeleton had worn out pink slippers.

“So we’re all seeing the resemblances right?”

“oh yeah, 100%.”

“Should we wake them up?”

“WHAT ELSE COULD WE DO? THE MACHINE’S GONE DARK AND WE SHOULD MAKE SURE OUR GUESTS ARE OKAY.”

You couldn’t disagree with that, so you walked over to the monster pair and gently tried to shake them into consciousness. Papyrus took another set, where the shorter had a thing for teal and sea green clothing, and the taller wore an orange hoodie. Sans took the last set, who looked like they raided a Hot Topic recently and still told their mothers it wasn’t a phase.

Your set is the first to wake up, or at least, the taller of your set is. His sockets are very animated for something that’s usually hard bone, and they blink tiredly as he wakes up. The skeleton pushes his upper body up first and looks right at you.

“ARE YOU A COUSIN OF UNDYNE’S PERHAPS?” He thinks aloud.

Oh yeah, totally Papyrus. This skeleton just had a slight accent.

You aren’t sure how to reply to that, but you can assume Undyne from his universe looks like you. After a second, his brain catches up and he rockets into a full, upright sitting position.

“Hey- don’t move too fast please, you just woke up and we’re not sure if you’re stable, so please stop moving for a bit okay?” You suggested.

“WHO ARE YOU? WHERE AM I? WHY IS MY BROTHER SLEEPING ON THE FLOOR AND NOT ON A BED? WHO ARE-”

“Hold up for a second, please! You’re asking a lot of questions and not giving me time to think about or answer them. First: my name is Y/n, you’re currently in the basement of my neighbor’s house, your brother is on the floor because I’m pretty sure multi dimensional travel is a little disorienting. Can you help me wake up your brother? We have better seats and an explanation on the other side of those empty frames.” You pointed at the now empty glass frames

While you were waking your set, Papyrus had managed to wake one of his own sets too, the smaller one with a passion for blue.

“OWWWWW… WHY AM I HUNGOVER? WAIT… WHY AM I NOT IN MY HOUSE? WHO ARE YOU? WHY IS PAPYRUS’S BETTER LOOKING DOUBLE WAKING ME UP?”

Oh boy. This was already getting confusing.

You turn back to your set, “Do you feel hungover? Any pain, dizziness, or disorientation?”

“NO, I’M CONFUSED AS TO WHY I’M HERE, BUT I OTHERWISE FEEL NO PAIN OR DIZZINESS.”

“Well that’s good to hear. How’s your brother?”

“HE LOOKS UNHARMED, AND I THINK HE’S WAKING UP RIGHT NOW.”

You turn to Papyrus, “Hey Paps, try healing your blue guy, these ones aren’t hurt or anything, so something might be up with yours.”

“BUT I’M PAPYRUS?” The skeleton you were just talking to pipes up.

“I had a feeling…”

“wha- Papyrus? i don’t remember falling asleep? why am i on a floor? who’re all these people?” Ah your second skeleton is up now.

“THEY SAID THEY’LL EXPLAIN IT TO US OVER THERE, SO LET’S GO.”

“Hey Al, I’m sending over some confused monsters, can you give them a rundown of what’s happening?”

“I can- I’ll do my best!” She calls back.

Sans is looking increasingly more uncomfortable with his own, still sleeping set. You do a quick **[CHECK]** and _why in the name of the Angel_ do they have such high EXP and LV? “Do you want me to take over and you can go help Alphys explain?”

“thanks, i’ll do that. these two give me a bad vibe.”

“Is it all the red and black or the high EXP and LV?” You asked.

“hard to tell, if i’m gonna be honest.” Sans says, as he carefully steps over the frames to approach the group on the other side.

You returned your attention to the two humans in front of you, where likely serial killers from the stats you just saw. Which one should you wake up first and was least likely to attack you on sight?

You choose the shorter one, on thoughts of ‘Sans is the Chill One’ and began shaking his shoulder and talking. While you’re doing this, Papyrus has succeeded in waking his set and is helping the taller one walk/carrying him to the growing group on the other side of the frames, leaving you alone with your new set.

Instead of the shorter one waking first, the taller does and he grabs your hand, glaring at you in what could probably be described as near murderous.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING WITH MY BROTHER, MONSTER?” He growls, his eyes glowing red as a warning.

“Oh yay, you’re up, can you help me wake him?” You respond, doing your best not to sound annoyed at the implied threat.

“DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH OR SOMETHING? DON’T YOU KNOW WHO WE ARE?” He continues, as he sits up and starts shaking his brother.

“No, there’s no death wish here, I just want to get you guys answers before you kill someone trying to get them. Don’t think for a moment, I can’t see all the LV and EXP you’ve racked up. And no, I don’t know who you are, because you’re kinda from out of town.”

“ngggggggh Boss whadda’ ya want? what time’s it even? And…shit. Boss, Boss, is that a monster? is she?” The smaller one is awake, and very curious it seems.

“Well you two want answers, let’s get you answers.” You replied, offering a hand to the shorter human.

He shakes his head politely at your offer and pushed himself up. His brother, the taller, copies this and pushes himself to his full height, a little taller than you, to try and intimidate you. It fails, because you’re tired and have seen monsters with higher LV before, as part of your job in the Underground.

“I got the last two up!” You call to your father, who’s a lot less on the floor now, and much more lively now.

You can feel the magic activating behind you from the taller human when you turned your back.

“Wouldn’t try attacking me big guy, you’re not in your universe now, and here, killing monsters is a no-no. I’m also really tired and don’t want to do this right now.” You feel him bristle at your words, but calm his magic nonetheless.

“look Boss! there’s another monster! do you think these two are related, or would that be racist to ask?” You hear the smaller human following you excitedly chatter to his brother, once he sees your father.

When you get to the group, the two other sets are seated and you offer seats to the newest set. The taller refuses, choosing to glare at you menacingly from his spot leaning against the wall, and the shorter sits. You take this chance to get a better look at your accidental visitors, because it’s not every day you get alternate versions of your friends to swing by.

The one you just woke up is wearing a large black jacket, with a fur lined hood, a spiked choker, a red shirt and black basketball shorts, with a yellow stripe down the side. His teeth were also oddly sharp for a human. Edgy. His hair was what would happen to Sans’s if he let it grow out a bit. Not as wavy, but it looked easier to work with. His eyes were also faintly glowing red, like he always had his magic activated. That looked stressful.

His brother wore a darker, more blood red coloured scarf in comparison to Papyrus’s, and this darker one was also quite worn and torn. Mr. Tall And Jerky wore a loose black muscle shirt with a gold hexagon outline on it. He wore black athletic sleeves with red bands around the wrist area and had a scar on his jaw and two larger, almost claw like scars over his right eye. He had red, ripped jeans, although these looked more like tears than a fashion statement trying to be made. His hair was in a clean undercut and even wavier than most of the other’s hair because of the short length. He wore combat boots and finger-less gloves, altogether looking like he was part of a gang. He pulled off the look well.

The Blue Wonder wore a teal shirt with a white skull and crossbones, as well as a baby blue bandanna tied around his neck. You could see black sleeves of a closer fitting shirt coming from the t-shirts sleeves and he had finger-less gloves too. He wore dark gray track pants and blue shoes that had a small amount of dried mud on the rubber sides. His hair was similar to Sans’s hairstyle, but with the care put into it that Papyrus dedicated to his own hair. He had baby blue eyes too, which felt dull in comparison to your Sans’s vibrant blue ones.

His brother was tall, lanky like Papyrus, and slouching, so he was shorter than you. His hoodie was a faded orange colour on the main body, but a shade much closer to red-orange on the sleeves. He wears camouflage cargo shorts and old looking running shoes. His hair is pretty wavy too, but looked like what you would expect if Papyrus took less care in his appearance. He did have plenty more freckles than Papyrus did though, and the same orange eyes. Orange Double’s eyes may have been a little wider through, and his smile was a little crooked. Why was he smiling? You didn’t know, maybe he liked the change of scenery?

“So how many of you know a Dr. Wing Dings Gaster, or Dr. W.D.G. De’Font?” You questioned, while you looked everyone over.

All six hands are raised, but the edgy brothers have a nervous expression when you mention him, “So I don’t know who he is to all of you in your universes, but in this one, we had a bit of a doubles situation and both disappeared, and have been driving us insane in our subconscious lately. We decided to just build a Machine to try and extract them from the Void they fell into, hopefully to bring them back and tell them to piss off, but that didn’t work, seeing as you came instead.”

“SO THIS IS YOUR FAULT?” The tall, angry human accused.

“That would be correct. Sorry about that.” Your father confirms, “But don’t worry, since this is our fault, we’re going to try and find you decent housing and help you adjust until we can get you back to your worlds!”

“uhh what if some of us don’t want to go back?” The shorter, not so angry human asked, and received a swat from his brother for it, “ow! i’m just askin’ for hypothetical reasons!”

“Well we aren’t usually who should dictate choices, but we’re not sure what would happen to your own world if you decided to stay in ours.” Your father replies, “Any other questions?”

You raise your hand, “I’ve got one for the visitors.”

Your father gives you the ‘go ahead’ wave and you turn back your attention to the six guests, which all had striking resemblances to each other.

“Raise your hand if your name is Sans.” Three hands raise, “Alright, hands down, raise your hand if your name is Papyrus.”

Another three hands go up. You turn back to the brothers from your universe.

“Congrats! They’re  **you** !” And you point to the brothers, then at your guests, like you were drawing a line.

You should’ve thought a little more before you said that. In your defense, it was really early on a Saturday morning, so you were not at your brightest. Plus the constant stress of the past three and a half months, you were not close to your top.

…

Chaos  _ erupted _ . The blue loving one immediately started interrogating your Sans, the one in Orange looked like he was having an existential crisis as he looked at your Papyrus. Your own friends from this universe were immediately overwhelmed as the skeleton brothers tried to question Papyrus at the same time, while the tall and angry one looked at you as if to say ‘LOOK AT THE SHIT YOU CAUSED, WHAT THE HELL?’ and you don’t blame him. You should have thought about the consequences of saying it like that, before you just dropped it on everyone with that particularly insensitive phrasing. His brother is looking around nervously and inches closer to his brother. You do actually feel bad once you see that.

Time to try and fix this, “Hey! Everybody  ** _ SHUT UP _ ** !”

The room goes silent, even your Sans and Papyrus look surprised, “You’re all getting Nicknames so we can talk and not have four people get called at once to pick up a sock!” You point to the brothers from your universe, “What do you two want to be called, and no, ‘Your Highness’ or anything of that variant is not an option!”

“uhhm... ketchup?” He shrugs with a weak grin.

“Are you serious.”

“short time to think, alright? would you prefer i said _hotstuff_? _destroyer of worlds_?”

You sighed, “Nah, Ketchup is good. What about you Paps?”

“VANILLA SOUNDS GOOD FOR ME.”

“Ketchup and Vanilla, food theme. Got it, what about you two?” You asked the skeletons.

“... bones.” The shorter replied.

“I’LL JUST BE RUS, TO MAKE THIS EASIER.”

“Bones and Rus, keepin’ it simple, good. And you two?” The Blue and Orange set.

“i’ll be… jazz. s’my favourite type of music.”

“AND I’LL BE BUZZ, BECAUSE I’M VERY HARDWORKING LIKE A BEE, AND IT RHYMES WITH JAZZ TO A DEGREE.”

“Okay, Buzz and Jazz, it works. Now you two, what do you want to be called?”

“hotstuff.” He gets swatted by his brother again, but does share a fast, proud look with Sans.

“Great, your name is now Red.” You declare instead, turning to his brother, “And you?”

“CAPTAIN.” He simply states.

“Sorry bud, that won’t work. Too many people call me Captain. It’ll get confusing.”

“THEN WHAT DO  _ YOU _ PROPOSE?” He sneers.

“I dunno, Scar? It can be short for Scarlet, which matches your brother, but it can also be for all the battle scars I see you have. You seem proud of them.”

“... ACCEPTABLE.”

Great, one problem solved, now onto the next: Rooming, because you can’t afford to buy another whole house for your guests, “Welp that’s good. Now for housing. I have extra room in my house if anybody wants it. They all have lockable doors from the inside and are pretty furnished, I also have bathrooms on each floor and a large kitchen. I have room for three people, but I also have two cats, for those who are allergic or dog people.”

Bones and Rus raise their hands, “we’ll take that offer, monsters gotta stick together ya know?”

“Sounds good. Anyone else, because I’m taking them as soon as this is done.”

Red raised his hand too, his brother tries to stop him, until he whispers something into Scar’s ear and the taller one hesitantly lets Red raise his hand again.

“Red? Okay then. Vanilla, call me if anything starts going sideways.” You say, and wave your group over so you can leave the basement.

The four of you walk up the stairs in silence for a moment, before you start asking questions again, “Can any of you Shortcut, or Teleport?”

Bones and Red look at you in surprise, you can feel their eyes burning holes through your jacket, “yeah. i can, how’d you know about shortcuts?”

“Ehh, long story. I would advise you not Shortcut into other rooms or bathrooms, since anyone in there has the right to smack you if you invade their privacy. So for everyone’s health, safety, and privacy, no Shortcutting into the rooms of others unless it’s an emergency. Sounds good?”

You get a positive reply and you navigate your group to the door, “My house is the neighboring house to this one, so if you ever need anything from this house, or talk to the others, it shouldn’t be too hard.”

You think for a moment while you open the front door. What else needs to be said? You step outside to lead the way, Red follows you, but Bones and Rus have their jaws hanging.

“Oh, I see! I thought you would see the other humans and assume we were Topside, but I guess you didn’t. Have you guys not escaped yet?”

“...no…”

“Well then it’s a good thing you’re in a monster neighborhood. The houses are full of windows, because our freedom is still somewhat recent, so we still adore the stars.”

“how long ago were you freed?” Red asks.

“Three years, getting to four this new year.” You get Bones and Rus’s attention so your group keeps moving, and you closed the door behind Rus.

“you really haven’t been out for a long time, i thought you meant you were only out for ten or twenty years.”

“Mmmhmm. Oh yeah, I forgot to ask, what’d you say to your brother to get him to let you come with us?”

“i said i’d spy on you guys for suspicious activity…”

“Suspicious activity? What would you define as suspicious?”

“uh i dunno, the reason why you’re called Captain often enough that he can’t use the nickname, or just if you’re planning to kill us, i just said stuff.”

If he really wanted to know so badly, he could’ve asked. You would have been glad to tell him that it was a job title, maybe even take him to the Embassy if you wanted to brag.

“It’s my job. That’s why I’m called Captain, a lot of people just refer to me as Captain in public, so another guy answering, a human at that, would concern people. Oh and, watch the cat.” You answer as you open your house’s door and catch Void launching at you.

“This is one of the aforementioned cats, Void.”

You begin showing the new people around and lead the monsters the three guest rooms you have, not including the one you saved for Naya and Frisk, and they pick rooms. Red grabs the room closest to yours, which you pointed out in an ‘avoid my room or suffer consequences’ way.

The last room you show your new roommates on the tour is the night watch room. It’s a sturdy glass dome on top of your house that lets you see every direction but down. You make sure to mention it’s open at all times and has a telescope in a box by the stairs in. You have a feeling Bones and Rus will be spending a lot of time in this room. Angel does too.

…

You get a text from your father, who says he and Alphys are home safe, and that he’s heading out later with your mother to help her buy her gift for Naya. It’s good to know they’re fine after all of that.

Perhaps you should mention to Naya that you have roommates now, but right now, Red’s trying to find something, so you’ll text your brother later.

…

“Who still has energy?” All three hands go up, “Awesome. We’re going shopping for clothes for you then.”

All of them shuffle towards the garage door, which you also pointed out in the tour, and you stop them, because four people can’t fit on your bike, even with the side car.

“Hold up, I don’t have a ride big enough for all of you in the garage. We’re Shortcutting. Is anyone here prone to motion sickness?”

Bones looks at you oddly, “well i don’t get motion sick, i don’t know the way to the mall, so how are we going to shortcut?”

“Who said you were the ones doing the Shortcut? Everybody hold on to some part of each other and close your eyes.” You can see the gears in everyone’s heads turning about your ‘long story’ answer to the Shortcut question from earlier.

You Shortcut all four of you to the mall and you funded everyone’s new wardrobe mission. The plan was to move from store to store, where everyone would look around, purchase what they wanted, and then moved on. Even you grabbed some extra clothes. You brought carts to carry everything you had and made your own mental list of what you were looking for, for yourself.

**YOU** : I’ve taken my charges to Mountainview Mall, they’re getting clothes

**Snas** : got it, once i get everyone to chill out, i’ll take them for clothes too

**YOU** : Everything okay over there?

**Snas** : Snas Sent You A Picture {File Attached}

The file opened to a picture of the TV room, Scar is sitting on the couch, watching something, but you can see Buzz holding a pan, sneaking up behind the couch, preparing to attack, and Jazz and Vanilla (from now on he will be referred to as Van) looked like they were fighting each other.

**YOU** : Do i need to come over there

**Snas** : nah i got it

**Snas** : Snas Sent You A Picture {File Attached}

This file shows you Jazz and Buzz pinned to the floor by Blue magic with Scar and Van looking down at the two troublemakers. You have a feeling the two of them are about to have a bad time.

**YOU** : lmao RIP

…

You end up buying a large jacket that’s way too big, but it’ll give you that pocket of warmth in it that makes the long sleeves worth it. Plus, larger winter coats often have large numbers of pockets and are long enough that you can sit down and not get your butt wet. It looks like the only people not buying winter clothing are Bones and Rus.

“Are you two from Snowdin?” You asked.

“YES WE ARE! HOW DID YOU KNOW?”

“It’s early November and you aren’t even looking at the winter clothing.”

“well,” Bones starts, “we’re pretty much not even skin and bone, so the cold goes  _ right through us _ .”

“OH MY GOD SAN- BONES.”

“Sorry Rus, but that’s a good one.”

“I THINK YOU MAY HAVE LOW STANDARDS.”

“You are correct Rus.” You sigh.

…

You also stopped at shoe stores, because you didn’t want your guests to be stuck wearing the same shoes every day. The cashiers keep giving you odd looks when you step forward to pay for the clothing, but you just shrug and they don’t press it. Red spends an ungodly amount of time in places like Spencer's and Hot Topic, getting the edgiest clothing he can get his hands on. Now, specifically these stores were not cheap, and you could hear your wallet beginning to question your decisions. You let him keep shopping, because he looks happy (and maybe to prove to his brother you aren’t a jerk).

You also test everyone’s phones. They’re all the same phone numbers, but if you put them in separate contacts, your call goes through to the intended recipient. Magic? Probably. Using that logic, you make six contacts and name each one something different so you have contacts with every one of your guests.

**McJazzer**

**Energy Buzz**

**SkeleBone**

**PaTallRus**

**Red Mans**

**TallButJerky**

And then the contacts of Sans and Papyrus.

**snas**

**MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS**

…

You were so tired. You got everyone home, told Sans you were back, dumped out the carts, returned them, cut the tags off of the clothes and <strike>yeeted</strike> moved them into the laundry washer. You fed your cats and then took a nap, because it’s been the longest morning of your life. This was the first time you had normal dreams in almost four months. It. Was. Beautiful.  You went to sleep around 12 or 1pm, and woke up at 4pm.

Whoa. You _actually_ feel like you have energy. The only concerning part is the commotion you heard from down the stairs. That was bad news, and you just woke up, so who knows what’s been destroyed. You walk downstairs, expecting a war zone, but are pleasantly surprised to see your new roommates preparing for dinner. Sure, there’s banter, but you’d mistaken it for arguing from upstairs. You were relieved that everything was fine.

“Good afternoon. Whatcha’ doin?”

Red and Rus’s eyes light up, or in Rus’s case, eye lights get brighter.

“GOOD EVENING CAPTAIN! HOW WAS YOUR REST?”

“It was nice. What’s with the new Captain stuff?”

“we figured out why people call you Captain! we thought at first that you were an all monster ship captain, considering how monsters specifically would get confused if Scar started answering to Captain, but then we just googled you! nope! you’re the  _ Captain of the Royal Guard _ , an elite team of monster warriors, and you didn’t tell us!” Red exclaimed.

“imagine our further surprise when we find out you’ve been given the title of underground’s strongest monster too! why didn’t you tell us?” Bones continued from where Red left off.

“‘Cause it didn’t feel important? If you asked I would have told you.” Angel comes walking by and you pick her up and cuddle her, because you can.

Red looks like you just spoke another language, “not important? how? i honestly don’t understand that at all, lady.”

“BUT WOWIE! CAPTAIN OF THE ROYAL GUARD? I’VE ALWAYS WANTED TO JOIN THE ROYAL GUARD IN MY UNIVERSE! UNFORTUNATELY, THE CAPTAIN IS UNDYNE AND SHE DOESN’T REALLY BELIEVE IN MY CAPABILITIES.”

“Why? You look like you could punch someone through a wall.”

“APPARENTLY I’M TOO FRIENDLY.”

“I don’t see why that would stop you from entering the Guard. It means you become trustworthy, and with trust comes secrets. As they say, it’s the quiet ones you have to watch for, but it’s the ones everybody loves that hold the most power.”

“what poet is that, Captain?”

“Common sense.”

…

They even finished and sorted all the new clothing while you napped. They were really productive! Stars, even after the laundry, dinner was going smoothly too. The plan was macaroni and cheese, but made with pizza cheese with a little bit of added garlic, and they had cucumbers being chopped to have cold on the side. It was simple, fast and easy. You’d asked if there was anything you could do to help and was turned down repeatedly. This is how you ended up feeling useless in your own house.

“Hey, you guys wanna go visit the other brothers in Ketchup’s house?”

“sure. i wonder how Scar’s doing.”

“CAN WE SHORTCUT? IT’S FUN!”

“I don’t see why not.” You say, and hold out your hands for the Shortcut.

The four of you appear in the front hallway of Van and Ketchup’s house, but all you can hear is shouting. You share a concerned look with the rest of your group and tell them to walk a little further behind you, then you make your way towards the source of the shouting. It’s coming from the kitchen and as you get closer, the topic of the argument becomes more clear.

They’re arguing about dinner? It sounds like Scar wants to make lasagna, Buzz wants to make tacos and everyone else is just trying not to become a casualty. You realize you left a bunch of kitchen dominant personalities in this house, and this was a recipe for disaster. You turn back to Red and he gives you the ‘He’s Always Like This’ shrug. You pinch the bridge of your nose so you have something to focus on and reverse Buzz and Scar’s gravity so they’re pinned to the ceiling. There’s a stunned silence for a moment, which you bask in, before the two gravity trapped humans start yelling again, this time at the other three humans, trying to figure out who stuck them to the ceiling.

Then you, ever dramatic like your mother sometimes, walk into the kitchen, “Are you two done yet? We can almost hear every word from the next house over.”

Sans has this ‘my savior has arrived’ expression, and you enjoy the small ego boost it gives you, before turning back to the two primary concerns, “So what’s the problem here? You two can’t agree on dinner and are wasting time screaming at each other instead of trying to compromise? Tough, am I right?”

Scar looks angrier by the minute, but is keeping his mouth shut because he’s the one in heavily reversed gravity at the moment.

“So Buzz, what kind of food do you like?”

“I LIKE TACOS, AND BURGERS, CHICKEN SOUP, FRIED FOOD, I REALLY LIKE FRIED SQUID ACTUALLY-”

“Okay good to know, what food do you like, Scar?”

“ITALIAN AND SEAFOOD, I ENJOY SPICY FOOD AS WELL.”

“Also good to know. Ketchup, you know that smaller place a block from the Embassy?”

“yep, we ate there several times.”

“Take your group there. It’s got a lot of stuff on the menu, including fried squid tentacles, and there should be  _ something _ for Jazz. When you come back, all of you are going to plan meals for the next week on a sheet of paper, like civil humans. Capish?”

“aye aye, Captain.” Jazz says, and does a weak hand salute.

You turn back to the now silent hostages on the ceiling, “Can you guys please quiet down? You will get a say in what gets made, but you can’t turn to screaming matches? Does that sound fair?”

“SURE! SOUNDS GREAT WITH ME!” Buzz replies.

“I DON’T THINK I HAVE MUCH CHOICE HERE IF I WANT TO BE PUT DOWN. SO… YES.” Scar laments.

You shrug and carefully lower them back to the floor.

“JUST WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE ANYWAYS? WHEN DO YOU GET THE RIGHT TO BOSS US AROUND LEFT, RIGHT AND CENTER?”

You look up at Scar and shrug, “Someone has to be a peacekeeper. I’m trying to help.”

“i call bullshit! Boss, she’s Captain of the Royal Guard here! ya know’ the elite trained monster squad? and every monster calls her the strongest monster alive!” Red interjects.

“Well I wouldn’t call it-”

“IS THAT WHY I COULD NOT USE CAPTAIN AS AN ALIAS?”

You sigh from being cut off, and the questioning, “Long story short, yes. Now go get your food. We’ve got our own dinner back at our place we’ve gotta get to.”

…

Not even arguing neighbors are going to soil the good mood you woke up with. You sit on the couch with Sans and Papyrus and let the two groups talk to each other for a bit. You think this is about the second time Buzz has caused an issue, also with Scar, although Scar wasn’t doing anything for the first time. Come on, who just  _ attacks people with pans? _

“I think you guys should keep an eye on Buzz. He’s getting on Scar’s nerves, and I don’t want to be called in one day to this house for murder.”

“you have a point. i wonder if he’s got something against Scar.” Sans suggests.

“Maybe, maybe.”

You do eventually recall your roommates and head back to your house for the food. You guys have an easy, relaxing conversation over dinner. You love your group. They’re calm, respectful, quiet, mature… Really anything you could ask for from roommates. You do feel a little bad for the mess Sans and Papyrus had to deal with though.

“Did you guys have fun?”

“IF FUN IS LEARNING WHAT A VERSION OF ME DOES IN A VERY DIFFERENT UNIVERSE, THEN I THINK SO! JAZZ LIVES A VERY…  _ INTERESTING _ LIFESTYLE.” Rus recounts.

“Hmm. Do you guys play any instruments?”

“Jazz plays a guitar, and i play the drums and Pa-Scar can play the piano.” Red offers.

“That’s cool. Didn’t think Scar was a piano guy. I think Ketchup plays a trumpet.”

“i can play the trombone. i think i heard Buzz talking about his ‘awesome kazoo skills’.” Bones chimed in.

You aren’t sure what to say about that, so you just respond with “Cool. Wish i could play an instrument.”

If you’re going to be honest, you’re a mess with music. Can’t read notes and completely tone deaf. You can memorize a joke like the wingdings font, but you can’t read notes. It’s confusing. Probably an intricacy thing.

…

The next morning, a wonderful Sunday you might add, you’re making breakfast when you hear a knock at the door. You’re scrambling eggs and can’t really leave, so you call for the only other person up: Red.

“Red? Can you get the door?”

“on it Sweetheart.”

“Sweetheart? What happened to Captain?”

You hear the sound of the door opening and a very confused voice, “Sans? Are you okay?”

That’s Naya. You forgot to text Naya.

“i-_aumm_\- i’m a relative a’ Sans. long story kid. are you… Y/n’s kid?”

You hear Naya snort, “Oh okay you’re definitely new. Sans asked the same thing when we first met. I’m Y/n’s little brother, nice to meet you, Not-Sans.”

“Do you really think I’m a kids kind of person, Red?” You call out from the kitchen.

“Oh your name is Red? That’s cool. I left something in my room here and came to pick it up. I didn’t know my sister had… friends… over…”

“Don’t say it like that Naya! I’m not hooking up with people! I have roommates now, since there was a financial issue for Sans’s cousins and I’m helping until they can get back on their feet.”

Naya is inside now and walking to the TV room with Red.

“Is she hooking up with you?” You heard Naya ask.

“no?”

“You sound confused.”

“we’re not together, if that’s what yer’ asking.”

“Aw man. My sister really needs to go out and meet more people. Can you go out with her?”

“NAYA. I. Can. Hear. You.” You yell. This is his warning.

“Euhhhhhhh. Fine Y/n. Fineeeeee.” Naya whines.

Red walks into the kitchen and plants his forehead into one of the kitchen counters, putting his jacket’s hood over his head, likely to hide his red face you caught on the way in.

“why is your brother trying to wingman you?”

“He thinks he’s helping. I’m sorry about that. I’ve got scrambled eggs and omelettes if you’re hungry though.” You offered.

“thanks.” Red sighs, “wait. Naya said he forgot something in his room, upstairs. do ya’ think he’s gonna try that wigman thing with Bones and Rus?”

“Stars,” What you’re really thinking: _Shitttttttttttt_, “You’ve got a point. Can you take over the eggs? I need to go make sure nothing else happens.”

You didn’t want to picture what would happen when Naya inevitable found about the skeletons and the other house full of ‘relatives’. What if some of them actually listened to him?

Red picks his head off the counter and takes the stirring spoon you were using in the eggs from you, “got it. go stop yer’ evil little bro.”

“If I don’t come back, tell Jazz to do the chicken dance in my honor!” You called back to him just before you shortcut to the second floor.

You can hear Red from the kitchen, cackling at the mental image while you run up and down the halls looking for your brother, luckily you find him in his room, grabbing a shirt or two.

“I should probably warn you about my other roommates.” You mention.

“Are you hooking up with them?”

“No- why woul-”

“Then why does it concern me?”

“Because I don’t want you guilting one of them into trying to ask me out, One of them takes some things a little too seriously and I’m not here for the drama.”

“Okay. Anything else?”

“Yeah, Sans has more relatives at his place. Don’t go there. The three of them are sort of waging war against each other and I don’t want you to die by family feud, because then I would also die by family feud with mom.”

“That’s cool? And you’re  ** _sure_ ** you’re not hooking up with Red?”

“No  _ why would I do that Naya _ ? I don’t have time for that.”

“I dunno he seems like your type?’

“I do  _ not _ have a type.”

“Not now you don’t.”

“Is that a threat?” Why does he sound so certain about you having a type?

“Is it?”

You point to the bedroom’s door, “Okay, get out.”

“Fair enough.”

You walk behind Naya like a guard escorting a prisoner, all the way to the front door. Red catches sight of you guys on the way out and grins, you give him a thumbs up for success on your mission.

Once Naya is out, you stick around by the windows to make sure Naya didn’t re-route to Sans’s house.

“all clear?” Red asks, from right behind you, he probably took a Shortcut.

“All clear soldier. We have driven the enemy out of home base.” The two of you high five in celebration.

“WHAT ENEMY? WHAT DID I MISS?” Rus asks you, “I HEARD YELLING EARLIER.”

“My little brother came by on short notice and tried to set Red and I up for a date. I was getting him out before he tried anything weird on you guys. He’s gotten so… _unnaturally invested_ in my romantic life recently.”

“DO MONSTERS GO THROUGH PUBERTY? IF SO, THAT MIGHT BE IT.”

“Maybe,” You sighed, “If he swings by, please don’t indulge in any romance convos about me. He’s playing self appointed wing-man.”

“OKAY?”

“well in any case, the eggs are done. you want some?” Red asks the two of you.

…

“And then he tried to get Red and I to hook up! Can you see the audacity?”

“he-wa-oh my gosh you brother is a riot!” Sans laughed so hard he was having a hard time pronouncing his words..

“No! Stop laughing it’s mortifying!”

“he-he said ‘Not-Sans’ wh-hahahahaha! he doesn’t believe either of you for a second!” Sans laughs  _ even harder _ .

“I came here so you would help me feel better! I am not feeling better!” But you are smiling and trying not to laugh along with your human friend <strike>his laughter is </strike><strike>contagious</strike>.

You came over to Sans’s house after breakfast to go over what the game plan was for your guests and the Machine, but you ended up talking about your brother’s antics instead.

“but for real on the Machine, i think we need a break from working on it so we can come back to it with less stressed visions, yeah?”

“For how long?”

“maybe a month or two?”

“But that’s a month or two where they can’t go home!”

“and we worked on that Machine for almost four. if they’re other versions of me, who can Shortcut and know the circumstances of each of their G’s disappearance, then they know just as much as we do and can try their hands on the machine too. i’m sure your dad and Dr. Al want a break too, you have to keep up with your own work on top of that.”

“...Okay. Month or two long break.”

“good, i do have a favour to ask of you, if that’s okay with you.”

“I’m listening?”

“Scar doesn’t want to go shopping with the rest of us. he wants to go with his own brother, i think he wants a form of privacy, and since Red trusts you, i was thinking you might be able to take them? i can give you money or pay you back after so we keep ourselves afloat.”

Red would want his brother to have the same accommodations he did. You can tell he cares by the amount of times Red’s brought up his brother in conversations, or his brother’s accomplishments. Scar had also been relatively civil through these past two days, unless provoked, which you weren’t any better for. Your job was to help people… even if you didn’t like them…

“‘Kay. I’ll take him and Red today if he’s up for it.”

“i’ll go ask, you grab Red?”

“Sounds good, meet you back here at the couch.”

You track down Red’s Soul to his room. You’re careful to Shortcut tight outside of it and knock, “Hey Red, can we talk?”

“sure. door's unlocked!” You hear through the door.

You open the door, and Red is sitting on the bed with a pad of paper and a pen, probably one he found in one of your office drawers.

“Right, so your brother might have told you, but he doesn’t want to go clothing shopping with his own group, and he wants to go with you. He also doesn’t like Ketchup I think. Would you like me to take the two of your today, while we still have time?”

“sure! i know my brother’s going to throw a fit about company, but trust me, he’ll be thankful. he’s a clean nut in there somewhere, so the lack of _clean_ clothing is likely driving him insane.”

“Nice. Let’s go see if Ketchup got your brother on board.”

…

The couch is empty when you arrive, but you can hear a raised voice from above. You share an unsurprising ‘Can You Guess Who That Might Be’ look with Red and the two of you take spots on the couch to wait. Scar’s screaming loud enough for you to hear that Scar doesn’t like being treated like a baby. How the escort from you was unnecessary, and he and Red would be just fine on their own. A couple minutes later, the raised voice begins to quiet down and eventually goes silent. In its place, Sans and Scar appear by the couch.

“he’s ready. adios amigos.” Sans salutes you and Red before vanishing again.

<strike> So he was just going to leave the two of you to the fallout huh? </strike>

“WHERE’S YOUR CAR, CAPTAIN. LET’S MAKE THIS QUICK.” Scar sounds exasperated and bored, fine by you. You don’t really care.

“We’re not taking a car.” You replied evenly, grabbing Red’s jacket sleeve and part of Scar’s shirt, as soon as he blinked, the three of you vanished.

“We have arrived.” You declare once you get to the mall, “Alright Red, lead the way. I’ll grab a cart later.”

You catch Red muttering about ‘we don’t need roads where we’re going’ and question him, but he deflects and you don’t care enough to keep pushing. You are not that curious, as it seems your brother got all the curiosity. From what you’ve heard online, it’s a movie reference, for what movie, you aren’t sure yet. You’d Google it again when you get home.

After about twenty minutes, you get  _ really _ good at blocking out Scar’s voice, at least, to a degree where you can process what he’s saying and replace anything annoying with static. Most of the shirts he buys are either red and collared, or black and a muscle shirt. There’s the occasional dark gray t-shirt and the even rarer red turtleneck. You also buy him a pack of hair ties, for when he does want to tie back the longer parts of his undercut hair. He doesn’t thank you, but he does nod an acknowledgement and keep his mouth shut. You’ll take that.

Red looks between the two of you hopefully as you continue shopping. Unlike your last group, Scar spends a lot of time looking at winter coats. He chooses a sleek, thinner black one, with a fur lined hood, like Red’s. He also picks out snow boots and a pair of running shoes. You nudge Red to advise winter gloves as well, which Scar heeds and finds a pair he likes. You start to notice that as long as Red suggests it, Scar doesn’t get mad. Power of sibling <strike>tolerance</strike> benefits? Maybe. So when you feel like Scar might be missing something, you mutter it to Red and it gets found and bought. You end up finding a cart fairly early into the trip, as Scar is a clothing Diva. There was almost the same amount of time spent at the mall this trip as there was spent on your last trip, which was for four people.

Sometimes you sat on the handles of the cart and used your magic to move the cart and yourself places, while balancing out the cart. When you approach the counters in stores, you’re pretty sure you catch a couple employees shedding tears of fear at how much Scar wants to buy. You can only offer an apologetic smile in return. You got even wilder looks from other shoppers at the pile of clothing in the cart you were riding. That was pretty funny, in your opinion.

You open your phone and change a contact name from  **TallButJerky** to  **TallButFashion** , and grinned at your insignificant, but somehow funny change. You consider changing Red’s contact name to TotallyNotAHookUp, but knowing Naya he’d take it ironically and assume you really were hooking up and lying to him before.

“hey Sweetheart, we’re almost done!”

“Again, what happened to Captain? And what else does Scar need?”

“a couple sweaters, that’s all. he wanted to save them for last so he could compare to what he’d already bought to make the best looking decisions.”

Bonus points for planning ahead? Sort of? “A for effort?”

Red shrugs too, “i promise we’re almost done. just a little longer and we can go home.”

“Mmhmm.” You hum, as you wait outside of the shop in your tactical shopping cart (with how heavy it was from clothes, it could stop bullets), for the brothers to finish their shopping.

Your phone buzzes and you pull it out of your pocket.

**Red Mans** : Y/n get in here we need a third opinion

**YOU** : Fine, I’m not great with fashion tho

**Red Mans** : Not an issue

You Shortcut yourself and the cart into the store, near to where the brothers are, “What’d you need help with?”

“VANILLA SAYS YOU’VE DATED BEFORE. YOU MUST KNOW WHAT WOULD LOOKS ATTRACTIVE IN SOME FORM, SO WHICH ONE SHOULD I BUY, THIS RED HOODIE WITH THE BLACK SLEEVES, OR THIS BLACK HOODIE?”

“Well it depends what you’re going for. If you want to stand out, buy the red one, but if you’re looking for a darker, mature look, go with the black.”

“I WILL BUY THE RED ONE THEN. YOUR ASSISTANCE IS APPRECIATED, CAPTAIN.”

“No problem Scar?” **<strike>Was that a thank-you you heard was that a thank-you you heard was that a thank-you you heard?</strike>**

You turn to Red as Scar goes to take off the hoodie, “Is he going on a date or something?”

He shrugs, “he doesn’t date but i don’t know anyways.”

“Let me guess, neither of you have dated anyone before?”

“ouch. that obvious?”

“Nah, Ketchup and Van haven’t either, I’m assuming it just wasn’t safe to do so for your world. We nicknamed it DangerTown or something like that when we first found it.”

“dangertown isn’t too far off actually.”

“Were you and Scar in a gang or something?”

“basically. how’d you guess that too?”

“You both dress like you’re trying to scare someone away and show off how much bigger, stronger, tougher, etc, you are. My mother, when she was Captain, did that with a suit of armor. Our own recruits didn’t get too close to her if they could, so it worked very well. I worked hard to be her counter. Trustworthy, approachable, fun. We made a good team like that, but now I’m Captain, so I’ve been struggling to keep the happy face up.”

“that sucks. this place is like a breath of fresh air to us, but old habits die hard, so Scar’s still pushing people out. I think he does see himself in you, before we got into gangs and stuff, since his job was pretty close to yours before the authorities got just as dark and dirty as the gangs did. he knows what it’s like to have all the pressure on you, even if you love your job most days, if i’m being honest, he respects you for getting to the top.”

“I HAVE RETURNED. LET’S FINISH OUR BUSINESS AND GO.”

“Aye aye Scar.” You reply, getting back onto the cart’s handles so you can wheel it magically to the check out.

…

You Shortcut everyone home, met with Sans to get your money repaid, and you calculated how much laundry Scar and Red would have to do. About three or four, by the looks of it.

3 pm. Now what? You Googled the line that Red said at the mall. Apparently it’s from a movie called Back To The Future, a time traveling movie. Interesting. Was Red a Sci-Fi nerd like Sans was? You could bet on that.

“I’m heading home. Red, you have my number if you need me at all.” Then you vanished to your bedroom, where your cats were.

“Hello my little Angel and Void, I missed you.” You grabbed your laptop and resumed the episode of the TV series you’d been watching, while you cuddled with your cats, finally giving you time to think.

Less than a week away was your brother’s birthday. There would be a party at your parent’s house. You would bring your father’s and your gift when you arrived and the party would have food, namely cake, board games and a monster tradition: Magic Bullet Birthday cards. You need to make yours soon, so you’ll have it ready for this Thursday.

You knew Frisk, Chara, Asriel and some other humans and monsters would be attending, but you had yet to ask the list from your mother. Would you really need it though? It should be a bunch of kids around your brother’s age. You could bring some headphones to block the other guests out? Or come later? But you didn’t want to be late to your own brother’s birthday party.

The clock hit 5 and you went downstairs and made yourself a cup of ramen, then went back upstairs to finish your ‘meal’. You brought the empty container back downstairs after, and threw it out. When the clock hit 9, you got ready for bed and settled in with your cats. You had work tomorrow, so you couldn’t afford to stay up late.

9 turned to 10. 10 turned to 11, and you went downstairs to make a warm cup of water for yourself, in hopes of making yourself drowsier. Why couldn’t you sleep? You’d done plenty of stuff today to tire you out and it’s not like you were scared of the rampant nightmares anymore. You absently rubbed at the three scars in your stomach through your shirt as you poured some tap water for yourself.

“you feeling alright?” You’re awake enough to be surprised, but a little too tired to flinch at Red’s voice beside you, “do monsters have periods and cramps?”

“Some do, I have them, but I’m good right now, if that’s what you’re asking.”

“are you okay? most people don’t just keep rubbing at their guts like that.”

“It’s just scars. You read about me online right?”

“that i did.”

“Then you probably saw the event that made me famous, apart from being with Frisk when the Barrier was broken. I fought the Empress, the monster, who at the time was the strongest. It was an absolute. My mother couldn’t even lay a hand on the Empress when they spared together, and my mother trained me.”

“whoa. so you won what even the Captain before you who trained with the Empress couldn’t win? that’s so metal.”

“I know right? I only won because I had surprises that couldn’t be blocked. Like my Blasters, and I had Frisk convincing her to back down the entire time, so she wasn’t at her top while we fought. She got a good slash on me near the end, and my scales turned darker there when the injury healed, so I have visible scars. Frisk does too, but much less noticeable compared to mine. The Empress has burn scars on several parts of her body too.”

“you’re pretty cool, you know that?”

“I try.” You chuckled, “That’s what got me a promotion to Captain two years after we reached the Surface, and everyone settled down.”

“so are you like a living legend or something?”

“I have a statue at the Embassy, if that helps?”

“did i already mention yer’ super cool, like, badass as all hell?”

“I’m not the only one, Princess Willow, Frisk and my little brother also have statues. My brother’s an incredible healer. He saved my life after the fight with the Empress.”

“speakin’ of yer’ family, was the other monster in the basement your family too? you two have the same scales and face shape.”

“Yes, that’s my father, Doctor Bryn Draco, the Royal Scientist.”

“you’re from an entire family of badasses! it’s literally in your blood!” Red exclaimed.

“Ehh,  _ well I’m not _ sure about that. Maybe we can visit the Embassy building later and you can see the stories and statues yourself.”

“that sounds amazing.” Red says, grinning.

“Maybe your brother can come too and learn a bit about the Underground, since it sounds like in your world, the monsters haven’t been freed yet.”

“true, but take the night to sleep on my thoughts about the bloodline badassery and get back to me after your work tomorrow, ‘aight Sweetheart?”

  
  


“Sounds good. I’ll let you know then.” He patted you on the shoulder and vanished after you finished speaking.

You smiled, knowing he likely just Shortcut to his room.

“Sweetheart? What happened to Captain?” You whispered out to the empty kitchen, like you still had someone to talk to.

You drank your warm water and retired to your room for the rest of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this took so long to make coherent. my keyboard is crying.
> 
> how do you like Y/n's new roommates and the new cast? let me know in the comments, and what you guys want to see on the Mini Stories & What Ifs collection.


	6. It Might Cost An Arm and A Leg

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well it's been a week, for sure, but it's about to get way worse. Maybe it's also the odd dreams you're having.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As you've probably noticed, my schedule is very out of wack, so any and all updates will be really random. Sorry and enjoy this really long chapter.

You’ve read enough fantasy books about time travel and alternate, fantastical realities (it helped so many monsters cope with being trapped. It was an outlet to imagine the surface world, to feel less like screaming every morning) to understand bad things happen when multidimensional beings are left to their own agendas, in one building. This information makes you hesitant to leave your roommates at home with not much to do. They could play games, you had a PS that you bought for Naya to play on when he came over, but they didn’t know about that, and beyond the board games, you hadn’t left them with much to do apart from phone internet and TV. You also didn’t want to leave Bones and Rus trapped inside, now that they’re finally above ground.

Thoughts like these made you antsy to get home, and when your lunch break came, you Shortcut back to the house. You didn’t think anything would be broken (these skeletons and human were quite responsible), but you didn’t want to go too long without giving them some options, or information, for example in an emergency.

“Bones? Rus? You here?”

“YES! YOU ARE HOME MUCH EARLIER THAN I EXPECTED? IS EVERYTHING ALRIGHT?” Rus calls from the library.

“Yeah, everything’s fine, I’m on lunch break, I just wanted to let you know that there’s hundreds of hiking trails all over Mt.Ebott, so if you wanted to go out and do some exploring this weekend…” You offered.

“ABSOLUTELY! I WOULD LOVE TO SEE WHAT THE SURFACE IS LIKE BEFORE I RETURN TO MY HOME UNDERGROUND.”

“we’re going exploring?” Bones jumps in, and he walks out of the library too.

“Only if you want to. I think it’s too cold for the beach, but most trails look even cooler in the winter, and nobody will question a group of monsters walking around the mountain.”

“sounds cool. the only trees i’ve ever seen are the ones in snowdin. and i could use some fresh air.”

“WE DON’T BREATHE BROTHER, NEITHER OF US HAVE LUNGS. WE DON’T NEED FRESH AIR.”

Interesting, "Well that's cool. I should probably let you know I have a gaming system here that you guys can use, and plenty of board games, so if you ever get bored, you're free to use them," but you have a new concern following this information, “Where’s Red?”

“over at the other house, with the others. we haven’t heard any screams yet, so i assume nobody’s dead.”

“As lovely as ‘no issues in the other house’ sounds, I don’t buy it. I’m going to check that out and then hopefully be back in time for food. Have you two eaten yet?”

“no, but we can make something up while you’re over there. how does chicken noodle soup sound?”

“Sounds delicious, I’ll see you later.” You do take a moment to put out food for your cats, then you vanish.

…

It was not as quiet as promised on the inside of your neighbor’s house, although to a degree it reassured you there was active life still inhabiting the house. At least there wasn’t blood covering the walls, so that was an automatic win. You keep walking until you find Sans, Papyrus, Red, Scar, Buzz and Jazz all seated in the TV room, playing Mario Kart. You can understand the yelling now.

Before you can leave, curiosity satiated, someone calls out for you, “HI THERE MISS MONSTER! HAVE YOU COME TO PLAY GAMES WITH US?”

“Nah, I just came to check in, I’m on break. Have you guys had lunch yet?” Your statement causes the game to be paused and several frantic checks on phones for the time.

“WE HAVE NOT, AND WE HAVEN’T HAD BREAKFAST EITHER! THANK YOU FOR THE REMINDER, MISS MONSTER!” Buzz replies.

“Just call me Captain for now, there’s too many other Miss Monsters out in the world. And Red, Bones and Rus are making soup if you want some.

“what kind?” Red asks.

“Chicken noodle. We’re also going on a hike this weekend on Mt.Ebott, if you feel like going out. And Ketchup, shouldn’t you be spending your lunch break eating, not playing?”

“i’m going on another break?”

You shake your head, and Shortcut back to your place. Sans is either always on break, or so busy you don’t see him for a whole week. Science work is weird (you would know, your father complained about it all the time when you and Naya were little).

“HOW IS EVERYONE AT THE OTHER HOUSE?” Rus asks.

“Alive. They’re playing Mario Kart, and they’re getting competitive. I reminded them to eat and told Red we’ve got soup. Are the cats eating?”

“yep. soup’ll be ready in 15.” Bones informs you.

“Thank you, I appreciate it.” You praised, “I can make dinner if you tell me what you want to eat tonight.”

“well it helps all of us, so i don’t see why not. maybe spaghetti tonight?”

…

You usually aren’t much of a soup person, but there’s extra noodles and some spice you can't name that one of the skeletons added, which made you a little happier. You add some magic to your own bowl, and the three of you sank down onto the couch to watch NatGeo, since all parties enjoyed watching nature. None of you have explored more than the city, so you use your TV to look at the world outside Ebott.

You finish your food, take it to the kitchen, wash out your bowl and leave it in the dishwasher to dry, “I’m heading back to work. Text me if anything happens?”

“will do.”

…

What a nice work day it would have been if you had nothing strenuous and could relax, to plan for your weekend outing. Life does not agree with you. Today you were _ personally _ called in. That didn’t happen often and while you missed the action, you had a very bad feeling about this call, especially since the reason was a hostage situation.

“What are the details?”

“Jewelry store robbery gone wrong. There’s ten hostages, including staff, one is a child. There are three men with guns and they want all police units to leave or they’ll start shooting hostages. From what we can tell, two staff members, humans, are in there, a three monsters, and five other humans, including the child.” The officer who summoned you recited.

“What would you like me to do?” You inquired.

“We’d appreciate if you either removed the robbers without casualties, or rescue all ten hostages, whichever you think you can do best. With your experience and skill sets, we felt you were the best option.”

“I’ll try and disable the robbers, if not, I’ll probably be grabbing the hostages. Don’t fully pull out your officers, but keep them hidden in case the robbers try to make a run for it.”

“We can do that. Here’s the floor plan, in case you need to do some navigating. Good luck Captain.”

The operation begins.

You are quietly given a kevlar vest, a radio, and pepper spray. Unfortunately, they didn’t have a helmet with room for your horns, and you’ll have to do without (any other alarms bells that _ weren't _ triggered at this point?). You don’t have a firearm license, so you don’t have a gun, but you hope that the pepper spray and your magic is sufficient. You are shown a sidestreet out of sight from the jewelry store that you can bring any persons removed from the building. There is a division, for hostages and hostile persons, of course, with an ambulance on the way.

The officer in charge uses a megaphone to tell the hijackers that the police will be leaving,’ just give them a couple minutes’. You are on the top of the building as this happens, and you get a call from your radio.

“All clear.”

“Affirmative, going radio silent.” You then turn off your radio, so you don’t alert your targets.

You use your Soul tracking to pinpoint where each hostage is and where their captors are. All the Souls are in some form of distress, and eleven aren’t moving. You can assume they’ve been trapped or bound. Two are moving in a way that indicates pacing. You can’t see where the third gun person is.

You dig a little deeper, with **[CHECK]**s, you confirm the two pacing Souls are two armed men, who are anxious to leave, and one Soul, at the back of the store, who’s guarding a vault, and remaining vigilant until his partners signal him. You’ve found your third man.

If you could get all three men into one place, pin them, and Shortcut them to the ‘retreating’ officers, your job is done. If you pin the third man by the vault, and wait for him to call for help, his accomplices should move towards him to help him, leaving the hostages alone. Then you can disarm them and get them out of the building.

If they don’t, you can move them individually, or switch to recon. You’ll have to be fast if you want the first part to work. You need to get in, be as close as possible, blind him, remove his weapons, and wait for his back up to follow through.

That’s where you begin. You already have your pepper spray in hand when you Shortcut as close as you physically can to the single man in the vault. Before he can lift his weapon, a large rifle of some kind, you spray him in the face. As soon as he’s blind, you plant your elbow into his jaw, as one does, and yanked the gun from his weakened grip. Unarmed and at a loss of sight, you increase his gravity and he’s pinned to the floor.

“Now stay silent.” This decides what happens next.

Humans love to not do what they’re told, especially if it’s a last ditch attempt to save themselves. He could play it smart and stay silent, like you asked him, then you could deliver him to the drop-off zone and come back. Or he could call for help and hope one of his friends can free him.

“Help! Matt! David! Someone got in! I can’t see! Somebody help me!” His voice is nasally from the pepper spray, but loud nonetheless.

Your Soul tracking senses one man break off from the other, who was watching the hostages, and start making his way towards your vault room. You increase the first man’s gravity even more to make it feel urgent. You take your place by the doorway to the vault room and wait.

Your own hostage is the perfect bait, as he continues to wail and yell for aid. He couldn’t even hear you walking to another part of the room. As soon as the second man enters, you backhand him in the nose and as he recoils in pain, Shortcut him and the first man to the drop-off point. You let go of the two men and hand off the rifle to an officer, before returning to the raided store. You’ve noticed that the second man had a smaller gun, so you can’t be sure your ‘get close so he doesn’t have room to attack you’ strategy will hold up.

The last man hasn’t budged, but he’s very paranoid and is calling out for what you can assume are the other two men, asking them what happened. You had a feeling this would happen. This last man is the one who made the demands, likely the leader of the trio.

You need to take him down now, before he tries to trade hostages for his men back. You don’t like what this means. You have two choices: Remove him ASAP or fight him (without pepper spray, because you could hit a hostage instead) and risk a hostage being hurt.

There is clearly a favourable option, but if the last man has fast reflexes and a small weapon, it could also be a very painful option. That would be considered a win, as long as no bystanders got hurt. Is this seriously the best you can do? Without causing death and using too much force, yes.

Here goes nothing.

You Shortcut as near to him as you can be, unfortunately, on his right side, where he’s holding his weapon. You manage to pin him him, then grab him, the moment before you can get the two of your out, a crack rings out. It doesn’t matter, he’s at the new point, but he’s not hindered by anything but confusion.

He fires his gun twice more, before he’s tackled by officers in more armor than you, and your left leg gives out on you.

Three solid shots to the left leg (one was much closer to your foot) at close range, and ** _by the Angel does it _ ** ** _sting_ **. It burns and it’s sore too, but the overwhelming sting is what prevails. If you could stand up, you would have walked over to the man who shot you and maybe punched him around, but alas. Your leg disagrees.

“Healer…” You find it very hard to speak with your jaws sealing themselves together from the pain.

“Yes, we’ll get you to the hospital, an ambulance is waiting.” An officer explains as she helps you up.

“_ No _ , mage, or monster. Healers’re always th’better option f-AUHH!” Your leg _ burns _ when you’re jostled into the ambulance.

“We don’t have any healers yet, the monsters need to pass medical studies first, and there hasn't been enough time for even the earliest monster to do so, I’m sorry miss.” The officer replies before returning to the others, who are loading the offenders into cruisers.

You manage to catch other members of law enforcement leaving the jewelry store with unarmed, casually dressed humans and monsters in tow, before the entrance to the ambulance is closed. You are alone with the paramedics in the _ tiny, _ ** _enclosed _ ** ** _ambulance._ ** With no open windows. No ways to see out. No ways to see the _ sky... _

You try your best to force down your emotional pain (you've already got plenty in your leg) and focus on the positives of this situation. At least the hostages safe now. This still sucks though. You don’t get shot often, in fact, this was the first human made gun shots you’ve taken. A painful first, but good to know for later, incase of… you’re not sure. It’s hard to think when your leg feels like it’s been shoved in the magma around the Core.

Your eyes fill with tears as you try your best to form clear words, “Call. My. Brother.”

You shakily unlock your phone and hold it out towards on of the paramedics, “Get. Those things. Out. Call Naya.”

The paramedic looks at you with a frown that says “I should not be doing this, but if it’ll make you feel better…” and your attention is turned away. Another paramedic is cutting away parts of your thick work pants to get to your wounds and every movement makes your leg hurt more.

This was going to be a long ride.

…

Naya laughed at the poorly drawn picture of Sans that Frisk drew, with an overused pencil pun written next to him. He continued to describe what Red looked like and what he said when Naya visited the day before, to Frisk and laughed even harder when Frisk sketched Red with an over dramatic frown, posing in a doorway, with an ‘it’s not a phase mom’ written next to it.

“Where did you learn to draw like that? It looks almost like an anime style!”

Frisk grinned, “Asriel taught Chara and I a couple years ago, and we just never stopped drawing stuff.”

“Can you teach me sometime?” Naya inquired.

“Well… _ I can _, but I’ll need your help with-”

“Naya, there’s a call from the office for you!” A classmate calls, holding the classroom’s phone receiver in his hands.

Naya frowned. He doesn’t remember doing anything wrong, and he had his lunch with him. Was there something he left at home? He walked to the classmate, who passed the phone to him.

“Hello? This is Naya Draco.”

“Your mother is here to pick you up, please grab your backpack and come down quickly, she says it’s an emergency.”

Naya’s heart drops into the floor, “I’ll get ready. Thank you for the call.”

He looks at Frisk with an apologetic look, “I have to go, family emergency, I’ll text you?”

Frisk nods understandingly, “Stay safe.”

…

“What’s wrong? What happened?” Naya asked his Mum when they have a moment of privacy in her car.

“Your sister’s been shot on the job. She had a paramedic call for you in the ambulance and when they couldn’t reach you, she gave up and a nurse called me after the surgery, this was about three hours ago. I think she’s awake now and asking for us.”

The moment of silence after that was crushing, Naya also noted monsters needed stronger sedatives after surgeries, likely magic enhanced. But there was overhanging thought that made it impossible to focus on any useful information: His sister had been shot, “I thought Y/n was doing desk work? Was there an attack on the Embassy?”

“I thought so too. I’ve received no information about anything about the Embassy, so either she was called into action, or something happened on the street.”

Naya feels his anxiety rise up in his chest, choking him and driving his mind into an abyss of overthinking. What if Y/n died? Who shot his sister? Were they still out there? Would the shooter come back for the rest of his family? Why did Y/n call for him?

He can barely feel tears sliding down his scales, only the hollow fear in his chest, and his thoughts swirling. Y/n could take down the Empress, what happened on the job? Why wasn’t he called? He tried to make clear to the humans that monsters would make great doctors, especially with their healing capabilities. He was turned down. He was ignored, like a child. He hated it. He could have helped his sister. He could have...

“Naya- Naya darling, Y/n is pretty okay for someone who was shot, if I’m being true to you. Remember when we left the Underground? You were with her. You were there to heal her when she was injured. I’m scared too. But I know Y/n is a strong monster, and I think Y/n wants to see you to make sure you’re okay. You two have been the closest siblings I’ve ever seen, I think she just wants to see you because you’d get upset if you didn’t get the chance to make sure she was okay.”

After a couple minutes of crying out the stress, he can finally speak, “Okay…”

“It’s gonna be okay. Why don’t we call some of her friends to come with us? I think Y/n would appreciate the distraction. The more monsters the merrier!” His mother suggests, ever cheerful, even when it’s hard.

“Okay… Okay, I can do that Mum, I’ll start calling around…”

Where should he start? Maybe Sans and Papyrus? Y/n did seem to hang out with them often, Naya had seen you dancing with the two of them at the festival. He saw Hunter too, and maybe Y/n’s new roommates.

He tried Quincy and Lana, but their calls went to voicemail and he leaves fast, undetailed messages about the situation and tries the next numbers.

Azlan does pick up and Naya breathes a sigh of relief that someone might come, but also anxiety from having to talk on the phone to someone.

"Hiya Azlan! Oh I'm doing okay I guess… yeah it's Y/n. She's not doing too well- yeah as in 'shes been hospitalized' not well. Bad job injury. Yeah. It's that kind. Alright, well, I'll hope to see you come visit later, maybe? Really? Awesome! I'm sure Y/n would be really happy to see you again!"

“Hey, yeah it’s Naya, Y/n’s little brother… Um yeah I’m doing fine- _ I do have a bit of bad news… _ Uhhh yeah she’s been… Shot… What! No, she’s in the hospital and we’re going to visit her? Do you want to come with? Oh… that’s okay. You can probably visit her on the weekend or after hours… Yeah that’s fine…Bring plenty of candy I guess- oh okay, bye Hunter…”

Naya puts down his phone, “Hunter wants to visit after he finishes work. I’m going to call Y/n’s neighbors and maybe I can get to her new roommates-”

“Y/n has roommates?” His mother asked.

“She didn’t tell you?” Why had his sister not told anyone? Y/n always talked about new things when they had family dinners.

“No, she didn’t. All the more reason for us to go see her.”

“I guess… Let me call some of her other friends...” Naya mumbled, “Hi Sans, this is Naya, Y/n’s little brother, yeah, how are you doing? That’s cool, yeah I’m alright I guess.”

Naya can hear other voices in the background, something about ‘GET JAZZ OFF THE CEILING’ and _ boy was that questionable _, “Why am I calling? Oh uhh yeah so can you meet us at the hospital soon? Ahh yep it’s Y/n, she’s been… shot… umm several times…”

Naya pulls the phone away from his ear and turned down the call volume before putting the phone back to the side of his face, “I- stop yelling please- can let you know more details when we get there? Yeah my mum’s driving me now, should I call you back? Stay on? I can. Can you grab her roommates, she wanted to let them know she probably won’t be home for dinner tonight. Wait what? How many people are you bringing? Oh whoa okay! I think they'll need to promise to keep the volume down. Umm bring snacks I guess?”

Naya catches a questioning look from his mum in the car mirror, “Violet River Hospital, yep, we’re almost there too. Anyone I should know you’re bringing? Oh that Red guy from like a day ago? Okay, okay- wow I didn't know you had so much family. Imma' just call you back when we get there. See ya soon Sans.”

“So,” His mom starts, “How many are we expecting?”

“Including Sans? Um nine…”

“Oh. That’s a lot.”

“Yeah. Y/n’s really going to be surprised… Party time?”

His mother laughs at that, although it was hard to keep the enthusiasm going. The two of them settle into an uncomfortable silence. Naya could see the hospital coming up on the left and the half filled parking lot, which they pulled into.

Naya attempts one last call, to Frisk. It of course goes to voicemail as Frisk is still in school, but he leaves a message nonetheless.

"Hey Frisky it's Naya. Just wanted to update you on what happened. An active job went wrong for Y/n and she was shot a couple times. Luckily she's fine now, but you know the drill. The hospitals don't have any magic specializing or healer staff, so she's in for a long day I guess. Maybe you can come visit her later. Although if I have any say in it, she'll be home soon and almost fully recovered." He attempted a joke at the end, but seeing as he had no audience, it felt weird.

"I'll see you tomorrow Frisky. Tell Chara I'm sorry I won't be able to go shopping with her today. I think… I need some time to… process all of this. Bye."

The two monsters walked into the hospital (ha ha ha) and Naya calls Sans back, who appears in the room with seven others. They all ask where to find Y/n Draco, two are family members and the others are friends, and they have to present IDs and declare any food they’ve brought before they’re given her room number and name tags.

As they walked to the room, Naya looked at the crowd he’d gathered, “So uh, hi there Humans? I’m Y/n’s little brother, Naya. Can I have some of your names? And I don’t remember skeleton monsters in the Underground, are you guys from the Ruins?”

“yes.” The shorter one replies, refusing to continue that part of the conversation. The snappy answer chills Naya (it was like Andrew on his job).

“welp, you know my brother, and you know Red, that tall guy with the red and black complex is Scar, just call the short skeleton Bones, and the taller is Rus. blue wonder over their is Buzz and the last guy is Jazz.”

“You’re the guy from the ceiling?” Naya interjects.

“how’d you know about the ceiling?” The taller human asked.

“I heard it on the phone call. You guys aren’t really quiet.”

“ah.”

…

They knock on the door to Y/n’s room and wait until they hear a quiet ‘Come in’ before opening the door. Inside, there’s a tired, slightly angry Y/n on the bed, left leg covered in bandages.

“Yo.” Y/n greets them.

Rus was surprised how not-dying-of-pain his host was in, “HELLO Y/N! YOU’RE LOOKING PRETTY GREAT FOR THE SITUATION!”

“Blunt as ever, Rus.” Y/n chuckled, although she looks uncomfortable at the movement.

“so what happened to ya Swee-Captain?” Red requested, carefully switching his phrasing after throwing a cautious look at the other scaled monsters in the room.

“Uggghhh,” Y/n groans at the memory and starts to explain, “The cops called me in to help with a sting. I got two out of three armed jerks out and the last guy had an attitude and took it out on my leg. Good news: nobody else got hurt, and we all know death is too scared to come for me now.”

“WHY ARE YOU SO SURE OF THAT?” Scar inquires.

“Do y'wanna fight me an’ find out Spikey?” Y/n accused, her expression turning a little darker.

“ALRIGHTTTTTT! I’M GLAD YOU HAVE CONFIDENCE IN YOUR ABILITY TO INTIMIDATE THE GRIM REAPER, BUT PLEASE DON’T FIGHT! WE’RE AT A HOSPITAL AND I’M SURE Y/N ISN’T INTERESTED IN THROWING HANDS!” Buzz intervened, sweating from the tension.

“i have snacks. are you allowed to eat outside food?” Jazz stated.

“Can someone call a nurse and check? I def want snacks though. Whatchu got for me Jazz hands?”

Rus notes that Y/n is very… _ open _ about her thoughts at the moment. She must have lost her filter on whatever painkillers she was given. Her brother leaves and finds a nurse to question before coming back.

“The nurse says don’t overdo it on the unhealthy stuff, and as long as it’s declared, and Y/n isn't moving from the bed then they don’t see why not. So what did you have again, Jazz?” Naya relays.

“i’ve got a bunch of new chocolates, some crackers, cookies, salad bowl, sliced fruit case, and some reheated leftovers.”

“Do you just carry new chocolates everywhere with you? And Papyrus, can you open the blinds please? I need some sunlight or I swear I'll actually go insane in here.”

Papyrus looks concerned as he opens the blinds and let's the afternoon sunlight stream in, and you breathe a sigh of relief. That building pressure in your throat and magic was finally fading.

Jazz shrugs, “i had time to grab ‘em.”

“I GRABBED SOME MONSTER CANDIES BEFORE WE LEFT, WILL THOSE HELP?”

“I hate to say it but this hospital knows nothing about monsters. We eat magic food, and it doesn't really affect our health like it does human bodies. I could eat magic cookies all day and still be fine, so you know what? Heck yeah! Hand those babies over, I’m starving!”

…

A knock sounded at the hospital room's door, almost completely drowned out by the talking of the humans and few monsters in the room, but you caught it and called the guests in.

A spider monster, three human children and a lynx monster entered (now that is how you start a joke), "Darling! Are you alright? I was called by Naya saying you'd been fatally wounded and I came with monster candy!"

You simply rolled your eyes, "Good afternoon to you too, Spider. Now hand over the candy. Everything hurts."

Y/n took another glance as the newest batch of people crowding into the room, "And greetings to you too, Frisk, Asriel, I believe? And Chara. It's nice to see the three of you. I don't think I've met Asriel though."

Unlike his younger siblings, Asriel had the same shock of white hair as Sans and Papyrus, but other than that, he had the same features as his siblings, although maybe he seemed a little more shy.

"Oh uhhh- howdy! 

...

“What? How are your wounds already healing?” A nurse asked, mostly to herself.

“Magic.” You declared, wiggling your fingers (there was a good reason there was no monster candy left, even after the generous donation that Hunter made when he visited).

“What do you mean? Magic doesn’t make people heal faster!”

“You don’t know how monsters work? We’re made of magic. My brother could have had me fully healed in under a week, but you guys don’t seem to like it when monsters do that.”

“Well it’s not a science-”

“Yes, but it’s faster, less expensive, less painful and applies to almost any physical injury. This wouldn’t be the first time I’ve needed his medical help. I have a scar from the last time, and no stomach issues. Magic’s also pretty inclusive of mages and monsters too, since not all monsters have limbs that're as nimble as your human hands.”

The nurse doesn’t reply, but she does glare at you. You glare back. She’s just here to help you put up your leg and give you some ice before you’re left alone for the night. The lights of your room is dimmed, you hide your phone under your pillow, and you’re pulled into sleep by your painkillers.

What a bore. You’d rather be at home with your cats and your roommates, far away from the completely monsterless hospitals, who knew nothing about monster health and safety. You should have called your brother and your father to get this fixed.

…

You decide to fix that situation yourself, and called them the next day. Sure enough, you leave the hospital, in almost perfect health. The nurses look at you like you’ve grown a second head while you check out and your Dad drives you home, for safety reasons.

After you two dropped Naya back at your parents' house, you decide it's finally time to tell your Dad about the magic that you'd sort of… forgot to mention to him earlier. "So Dad… I should probably mention I learned how to teleport shortly after the Barrier was broken-"

"What?" Your Dad yells, before pulling the car over on the side of the road.

"Yeah. Splintered Barrier magic is one hell of an enhancement. I'm just surprised it only happened to me when the Barrier broke…

"No… I don't think you're the only one… Frisk and Naya reported suddenly improved magical health soon after the event as well. I didn't know Naya could use blaster magic until that point," your father sighs. "He also tells me that he and Frisk have been secretly practicing magic after school so they could impress you. Sorry to ruin the surprise, but I think it's worth mentioning. I think it might also have to do with yours and Naya's involvement with the… _ other event _. It might have made you both more susceptible to absorbing foreign magic and made you bodies almost softer, per say, to do so..."

You both go silent for a moment, before you muster up the courage to push your thoughts out of your mind and into the air, "So you're saying… Those two incidents made me the strongest monster through magic recycling or something?"

"It's just a theory. But yes, that's what I believe."

...

You limp to the front door and unlock it, still stumbling into the living room, where your roommates were packing to come visit you.

“Y/N! YOU’RE HOME! THIS IS FANTASTIC! WOULD YOU LIKE LUNCH?” Rus exclaimed, dropping his bag in favour of rushing to where you were and looking you over.

“Hell yes _ please _.” You sigh, “And after lunch, I’ve got some stuff to show you.”

Healing takes magic and energy, and you hadn’t had breakfast. You would love for some food. And somewhere to sit. You leg was _ killing you slowly _, even your torso scar was getting itchy.

“what-how’d you get discharged so quickly? i mean- it’s not that i’m not happy you’re back- i was-”

“I get what you mean Red,” You interrupted, waving him off, “Healing magic. My brother’s insanely talented with it.”

You continue to limp towards the kitchen, and Red goes silent, “Hey Red you’ve gotten really quiet there. You okay?”

“oh uh… you sure your bro covered everything? your leg… looks a little stiff.”

Well. Apparently your story is far more questionable than predicted (although what was the point, you _ limp _ ), “Ah. How do I explain it… It’s difficult to… _ heal _ an injury so lethal as bullet wounds… My scar from a couple years ago did hurt for a time, to replace the healing process. So while I can now use my leg, I no longer need more rest to heal, but incredibly fast healing does confuse a body. So my leg still feels a little… uh sore… but _ I can _ run and jump and I’m back for action!”

Red frowns at you as he inserts himself at your side, “why the hell did you leave the hospital? your leg is still fucked up! you ain’t walking!”

Red gently places his hand on your shoulder and when you blink, the two of you reappear in the kitchen. Ah right. Two out of three of your roommates can Shortcut too. Why did you forget that?

“now let’s get some starsdamn grub.”

“Thanks Red.”

“food first, thanks later.”

“I MEAN NO DISRESPECT Y/N, BUT I WAS WONDERING… IF WE… COULD STILL GO OUT FOR THAT HIKE? I- WE DON’T HAVE TO! IF YOU WOULD LIKE A BREAK THAT IS ALSO FINE!” Rus requests during lunch, fiddling with his gloves after quickly appearing once the aroma of food wafted through the kitchen.

“Nah let’s go. I want to see the Ebott heights again.” You assure.

Red shoots you a ‘what the fuck are you talking about?’ look, but keeps his jaw closed. You smile as you continue shoveling mac and cheese into your mouth while the four of your chill on a couch. Red is almost radiating tense, while you joyfully ignore it in favour of making conversation with Rus and Bones.

“So how’s the rooms?”

“they’re nice. i really like how much light we can get in.” Bones commented.

“YES! I ENJOY HOW HIGH THE CEILINGS ARE HERE! IT’S JUST LIKE THE UNDERGROUND! I HEARD HUMANS HAVE SHORTER ROOMS!”

You snorted at his observation, “Personally, I hate enclosed spaces, so I’d die if I lived in a small place. And for the hike, what do you guys want to bring for food? It’ll be a long walk.”

“crutches.” Red grunts.

“Pardon Red? I didn’t catch all of it.” You inquired.

“crackers. something light.”

You held back a suspicious squint, deciding instead to ask for a notepad and pen so you can make a list, “Cool, crackers. What else? I’ve got sports drinks, and water bottles…”

“FRUITS? I CAN CUT UP STRAWBERRIES, OR MELONS.”

“Fruits, noted. Whatcha got Bones?”

“hmm. what about ketchup?”

“...I won’t question it as long as it stays on your own food.”

“hey if he gets ketchup i need mustard.”

“Got it Red, condiments: noted. What about a waterproof picnic blanket so we can sit?”

“A WONDERFUL SUGGESTION! WILL THERE BE ANY SNOW? WE COULD BRING A SLED.”

“Mmhm, raincheck: noted.”

…

“ARE YOU POSITIVE YOU ARE OKAY WITH HIKING UP A MOUNTAIN THIS WEEKEND? I KNOW YOU ARE INCREDIBLY STRONG, AND CAN HANDLE YOURSELF IN COMBAT, BUT I HEARD YOU TALKING ABOUT THE NITPICKS OF MAGIC HEALING TO RED. I’M JUST WONDERING IF IT WILL MAKE THE SORENESS WORSE, OR TIRE YOU OUT TOO QUICKLY.”

“I’ll be alright, I’ll bring monster food, and I'll have some painkillers beforehand, and a brace. I promise this isn’t my first rodeo.”

“DO YOU PROMISE YOUR HEALTH AND WELLBEING WON’T BE NEGATIVELY AFFECTED?”

You aren’t sure why, but this feels like a secret. Like you’ve been entrusted with a small, fragile… glass cup. Your chest feels colder, and heavier. “I promise Rus. I’ll be fine, and I can let you know if I need a break.”

“I’M GOING TO NEED YOU TO BE SPECIFIC. I’VE TALKED WITH BONES, ERGO, I'M FAMILIAR WITH HIS LOOPHOLE ABUSE.”

“Fine. I promise my health and wellbeing won’t be negatively affected by our hike this weekend. And I’ll have time between then and now, so I’ll be in a better shape.”

Rus sighs, “I HOPE YOU’RE GOOD AT KEEPING PROMISES.”

You shrugged, “I’d hope so. Now let me show you my puzzle and board games stash. I think you’re going to like Uno and Monopoly.”

…

The Empress called you personally that night, “Good evening Captain Draco, I hereby grant you mandatory two weeks paid leave for your recovery. Congratulations on a successful mission, and there’s been several calls to the Embassy from hostage’s families, thanking you for your services.”

“I’m glad they’re okay. Thank you, my Empress, I appreciate your kindness towards my situation.”

“That is all, I wish you a goodnight Captain.”

“Yes, good evening to you too my Empress.” You respond before you heard the line click and you ended the call on your end.

“whacha’ doin?’”

You turn from your spot on a couch, in your library. Leaning on a bookshelf nearby, is Bones, wearing his signature grin and plain, baggy, mint green pyjamas with his hoodie tied around his waist. You gesture to the couch seat near you, beyond where you put your leg up to rest, offering him a spot instead of the side of the wooden bookshelves.

“The Empress thinks I need to chill. So I’m totally free to start planning that mountain trek with you guys.”

“you sure you’re still up for that hike? it’s cool if you want to rest a bit, i know the feeling bud.”

You smile at the sentiment, “That’s sweet of you, but I could use the hike. Plus, don’t you guys want to see the view?”

Bones’s smile falls a little, into a concerned line as he plants himself down beside you on the couch, “are you sure you’re not a determined soul sub-type?”

“Positive. Justice 100%.” You grin proudly.

Bones looks too tired for your late night positivity, and he gives you a pat on the shoulder that was likely supposed to be reassuring, “hey, i admire your perseverance. what else is new on the surface here?”

That’s how you two end up talking long into the night about your favourite parts of the surface, from the sun, the rainbows that followed the mist and rain, or wildflowers in the fields. You explained even more enthusiastically when you saw his eyelights glowing softly with wonder. Every once in a while, you would point to a section of bookshelves when you had information you couldn’t recall all of.

Sometimes Bones would slide off the couch and grab books from the shelves you pointed at. Soon there were small stacks of books on top of the nearby coffee table, while blue tabs replaced the books Bones removed. The conversation slowly wound down you the two of you talking quietly to each other while looking out of the large window near the couch.

…

Dr. Draco was a terrifying monster. The DT experiments were a warning more than a rumor. Her marriage to the Captain of the Royal Guard was another warning. A second strike, if you will, but it's her eldest child that you had to be careful of.

Y/n was the best healer the Underground would ever see, and established a 'hospital' of sorts on the Snowdin-Waterfall border. Far enough from the Capital to be spiteful, or maybe it was something else, and distanced enough from the Lab to not frighten away most monsters.

Y/n, while still being a healer, was also a Boss Class Monster, and quite capable of taking care of herself. The large, purplish coloured scar that ran from her right cheek, over her nose was another example of her durability. Any patients she had that she didn't feel motivated enough to heal only added to her EXP. There were plenty more scars hidden under her plum turtleneck and white lab coat. The fallen human, Chara, would know.

"In this world, it's kill or be killed," The monster child- more like teen- Naya, informs her, "And frankly, we don't have room for 'friendship' down here. But you're lucky you found me before the other monsters did."

"Why?" Chara asks.

Naya never answers her, he simply stares into her eyes for a moment, like he’s reading something, before continuing walking, gesturing for her to follow. “Where are we going?”

“My sister’s place. I’m pretty strong, but I’m not out of my stripes yet. My sister is the only one here who probably won’t try to kill you right off the bat. She’s pretty badass. The major healer, but she’s got enough kills under her belt that nobody’s stupid enough to try her!” Naya promises.

Chara hums in response and fiddles with the gold and blue knife and flower pin he gifted her soon after they met outside the Ruins doors. A Ward pin, he called it? Maybe that’s why she trusted this monster so much (not like she had a lot of options in this Underground that desperately wanted her dead).

Naya seemed to be about 16 or 17, a similar age to Chara. They met when Chara saw a monster attempt to ambush Naya, and pushed him out of the bullet's path. He in turn dusted the offending monster (that totally didn't terrify the poor girl _ at all _), and then interrogated her on her motives. When he came to the conclusion that Chara had truly no ulterior motive behind her actions, he checks her Soul.

Then he toned down his intimidation levels and attempted some amicable communication.

"Many thanks for your assistance. I believe I owe you a favour for that. You may address me as Sentry Head Officer Naya. How may I be of service to you Human?"

Note: Naya was smart too. It didn't take him long to realize that Chara was not indeed another monster child.

"I uhh- I can't say I have a solid answer for you yet Officer… Could I have time to come to an answer?"

"Of course Human. Would you like some assistance traversing Snowdin in the meantime? It's not safe for humans, or anyone for that matter, to be walking around at a time like this."

The crystals that kept the cavern ceiling lit were starting to lose their luminance. It did feel like the time was later, and the air around the Snowdin forest filled with fog, like a warning. A warning that Chara would head without argument. "That would be wonderful, Officer."

"Think nothing of it, human. I'm just being… Hospitable. What is your name, by the way?"

"Chara De'Font, but I'm alright with just Chara." Their name exchange if followed by Naya pressing a small gold, blue and purple pin into her hand.

When she later dons his poncho as a disguise, she pins it on the article at his request.

"Come along Just Chara. We have a monster to meet."

\---

Snowdin is a weird place, Chara decides. Several monsters twitched in anticipation as their eyes reflected barely contained bloodlust. It was the sight of Naya seemed to be the only thing stopping them from slicing their Souls open. And maybe the poorly concealed, confused looks at the pin he gave her. Naya wore a pressed black Royal Guard Uniform, contrasted with his bloody copper and black striped bandana he wore around his neck. His tall boots, which almost reach his knees crunch heavily in the snow. They’re the same colour as his maroon gloves and Chara can feel his claws under the fabric as she clings to his arm while he guides her.

His entire appearance radiated authority and power, even though he was distinctly marked as still a youth.

One Lynx does try to stop them, “Hello brats! I didn’t know we had a new _ monster _ in town!”

“Good morning Andrew. I didn’t know Azlan let you off your leash today. Should I call him to come pick you up?” Naya returns with a sickeningly innocent smile.

“You little b-” The Lynx finds a glowing, plum coloured magic knife pressed to his neck and his entire body surrounded by more.

“Pardon? It seems I may have to call in Azlan and Y/n today. My hearing seems a little weak recently, could you repeat what you were saying Andrew?” Naya continues, while stepping in front of Chara, like to protect her.

The Lynx doesn’t open his jaw again. Naya un-summons his magic and the tension fades from the atmosphere, although some purple sparks persist for a moment, like a silent warning against trying anything. The Lynx turns tail and flees, and the several monsters who had turned to watch the confrontation quickly hide their faces or turn away.

“Come along Chara, I have so much to show you!” Naya announced, his slightly scarred face set in a chillingly cheerful smile, as he held out his arm for her to take as he guided her away from the almost battle ground.

Somehow, Chara didn’t feel… Scared. She can feel the trembling of the doll monster, Rosie, in her backpack, but nonetheless took Naya’s offered arm without complaint and he guided her, like a gentleman through Snowdin, all the way to a pristeen brick building with [**BORDER CLINIC**] written on a sign above the entrance.

Naya walked her inside and directly to the office door to the left. “Dr. Y/n Draco? Is this your sister?” Chara inquires.

“She is indeed,” Naya confirms as he knocks on the door and waits for a “Come In” from the other side before pushing the door open and waving her through.

The teens shuffle in and Naya releases the tension in his shoulders and relaxes his posture, while Chara has to resist crossing her arms in front of her under the poncho when she’s pinned with the doctor’s scrutinizing gaze. She had a scar running from the left cheek over her nose and just under her right eye. Her eyes flickered from a burning plum to a searing copper once she sized up Chara.

“Naya and Accomplice, what brings you two to my humble clinic tonight?” She asks, glancing between Naya and his hidden guest.

“They are no threat,” Naya answers immediately, “I need you to swear her in as your charge. She saved my life earlier. I think I owe her some basic courtesy."

The doctor’s eyes change from the deadly copper to a soft, warm gold and Chara looks over to Naya for confirmation of her safety and finds that his usually dark purple eyes have changed to a bright sky blue and a pastel green. “It’s alright now Chara, you can take off the hood.” He assures her, his voice’s usual edge missing in favour of something softer and easily more comfortable to listen to, in Chara’s opinion.

Chara decides she’ll take this chance. She’ll reset to her last [**SAVE**] if they kill her. Chara removed her borrowed disguise and folds it neatly in her arms, then meets the doctor’s curious gaze.

“A human child… Well, maybe not so young as a child, but you’re certainly not an adult yet…” The doctor assessed, her eyes lingered on Chara’s shirt. Black with two gold stripes. Not mature, “And a Ward pin. You must be something incredible. Why should I trust you human?”

Chara takes a deep breath, and lets her ruby red eyes really focus on the doctor’s face and not just her nose, “Six souls right? That’s what everyone told me in the Ruins. Nobody touched Naya in town, and everyone got really quiet when your name was mentioned, so I can assume you’re both really strong. In the event that I betray you, I’m pretty easy to kill. If you take me to the Barrier, I’ll get you all out of this hellhole. I swear it. That’s why you can trust me, Dr. Y/n.”

Chara spares a quick glance at Naya, only to find a proud grin directed at her. ‘Good job Human!’ it implied. Chara, while doing that, missed the empty look that flitted across the doctor’s face, like she was watching a movie, quickly followed by a soft smile. Dr. Y/n recalls the two teens’s attention with her next words.

“Well. How can I say no to such a delightful offer? You’re a very intelligent child, I’m sure we’ll get along _ swimmingly _. Consider yourself my charge now. Give me a second to pack up and we’ll be on our way.”

\---

The doctor did not specialize in attack magic, but had clearly built off of more passive ones like illusions and barrier magic to get offensive jobs done, while occasionally defaulting to blue and orange magic attacks if she was tired. Rosie always had so many questions to ask about the doctor’s creative fighting style.

She had an unusual grace to her movements. The smooth, swift attacks. Any hand-to-hand fighting was executed with minimal movement, flexibility and pure efficiency. Chara isn’t really surprised, as this world is a dangerous one, but for someone who is the Underground’s primary healthcare service, it was interesting to see.

“Sure, I have healing capabilities, but that also makes me the most powerful. I decide who lives or dies down here, Human. Monsters tend to not cross me in the instance that they need help later and I might deny them.”

“It’s not because you want to help them? Maybe make life down here as little less scary?” Chara ponders.

“That’s a difficult question to ask of me, child. Being selfless is… a tiring endeavour for us. The primary rule closely follows a ‘trust no-one’ line. Giving our your assistance and resources… is often seen as an open door for manipulation. There are reasons Iva- my friend is dusted.”

There was a name. And a title. A friend. Chara let that conversation rest and sought information from Naya when they had a brief break away from the doctor later. He speaks of a kind, forgiving bat monster that Y/n had _ married _ (nobody had been sure if Y/n ever felt anything romantic for him, but they trusted each other with their lives, and that was incredible for an Underground focused on backstabbing and survival), who had died about ten years before now, from being attacked by another monster.

Naya says that was when Y/n closed herself off to everyone but family and the closest of allies. Even with friends, it was controlled to a degree, although it seemed more for her friend's benefit than hers. Their ally/friend group had been tight knit for safety, and all of them had loved the bat monster- who was named Ivan- in a way. Many monsters fell that day from the storm of Boss Class Monsters who traversed the Underground searching for vengeance. Ivan had several assailants who attacked him, like the cowards they were. Several remained dust by the end of that bloody cycle. Any that weren’t found that day were brought in by other monsters looking to get into Y/n or the other Boss Monster’s good graces.

This was made all the more disorienting by Y/n’s treatment of children. The monster children adored the doctor. Y/n would never refuse to treat a child. Chara can see the Underground knows this, but the problem with using children to manipulate someone is that it’s hard to make children convincingly play along. Especially if they trust whoever you’re trying to con.

That rule played itself well from what Chara could see. Y/n still felt safe to so many monster children, despite the fact that she was well set into the monster class that was by unspoken rule, absolutely unsafe for everyone who wasn’t a Boss Monster. Chara still felt the doctor would ensure their safety, even if the doctor looked more like a mad scientist than someone who practiced medicine.

Chara felt like… well how to describe it… Once they reached the Capital, Dr. Y/n had become Y/n and then… more like a big sister that Chara never had. She has a feeling Naya and her twin brother Frisk would be good friends. All the more reason to free the monsters. Chara saw Y/n proundly give them a tour of the Royal Lab and of the Secret Lab with her and Naya’s mother. Naya taught Chara about the long missing Dr. River, and the oddly silly river boatsman who could almost quote the old doctor perfectly, despite no one else remember but their family.

Chara met the flamboyant Lanaton, the robotic media star of the Underground, with a magenta, gold and gray colour scheme plus a talent in music, dark comedy and deadly drama production. Chara also met Lanaton's Meeker cousin, Quincyblook, who was generally indifferent to all around him because of his ghost monster 'immortality'. There were of course, short bursts of passion from him, like protectiveness of friends, but those were rare and far in between. Chara might add that the emotion was contagious whenever she witnessed it though.

She saw Y/n take them to the throne room to face Queen Athena. She saw Y/n lock the two teens out of the throne room with the instructions to find the Souls while she buys them time by fighting the Queen head on.

“I’m a healer. She can hit me all she wants, but it’s not going to kill me!” Y/n swears, with venom hidden behind her words. The Queen was not well liked. Respected, but not liked.

\---

They return in time to see Y/n’s abdomen slashed wide open, only to be magically resealed and a similar slash re-appear on the Queen’s body.

“Stop! Stop! Everybody needs to stop!” Chara cried out, and she could see Naya’s well crafted stoic facade crack at the sight of his sister being almost fatally injured.

The battle ceased immediately and Chara notices the multiple cuts in Y/n’s clothing and the blood, magic and small clumps of dust staining it, but she’s otherwise okay. Rosie absorbs the Souls, absolutely rips the Queen a new one about the state that the Underground had fallen into and then punches the Barrier into shards. Y/n still does her best to protect Naya and Chara from the blast.

It’s all so worth it, when the Boss Monsters, the Seven Fallen Children and a couple other monsters all exit the mountain and watch as a new day begins with a beautiful sunrise. Y/n has exchanged her battle torn clothing for something more casual and she watches the sun paint the sky with tears overflowing down her face. The sibling’s eyes have even changed back to their non-aggressive gold, blue and green.

Naya weakly clings to Chara’s sleeve while he gapes at the new world around him, “Thank you… Thank you Chara. You really are our Angel…” He rasps through his sobs.

Angel? Well Chara has only heard a little about the Lore of the Underground’s Angel. She’s not sure if she’s qualified, but she can’t rain on Naya’s freedom parade right now. It’s time for the Mage family, the De’Fonts to step up. These monsters deserve the freedom after all those millenia trapped in the unstable caverns.

Dr. Y/n’s wide _ gold _ eyes silently reflecting the colours in the sky make the moment feel even more surreal.

\---

Dr. Y/n is especially quick to get her medical credentials on the Surface. Monster rights was a struggle, Ebbot isn’t exactly known for friendliness. Somehow, Monsters found a way. Dr. Y/n has established a well known medical clinic near the monster districts. Five years into monsters gaining completely equal rights, which took three years, and the De’Fonts have taken in the Dracos as their own. Naya and Chara have been… unusually close for several of those years.

Then there was Dr. Y/n and the De’Font cousins, Sans and Papyrus. The only people Y/n seemed to relax around. Sans had an oddly similar personality to Naya, in the cold control sort of way. Nobody knew what really went on between the three of them, but they were happy, so it wasn’t worth questioning most of the time.

Today, a year after meeting the cousins, she received a bedazzled looking letter in the mailbox today. Of course, it was the standard white envelope, but she could see a royal violet card nested inside.

**You are formally invited to Chara De’Font, soon to be De’Font-Draco and Naya Draco, soon to be De’Font-Draco’s Wedding!**

**You, Dr. Y/n Draco, are requested to be there as best monster, as the ceremony will be a combination of human and monster traditions! Please RSVP by-**

Y/n turns to you, effectively blocking your view of the invitation, her eyes are their plain gold: relaxed.

"You shouldn’t be here.”

…

You woke up to quiet voices, but not loud enough to make you want to _ really _ wake up. You kept your eyes closed and turned away to avoid the sounds.The voices quiet themselves even more and you shift back into deep sleep.

When you do find the energy to open your eyes you find yourself staring up at the library ceiling. Your mind isn’t really working and you stiffly sit up, lifting your head from the arm of the couch. Your leg is still sore, but hurts less than it did the day before when you moved it. You also noticed that Bone’s hoodie was draped across your upper body like a blanket. Your phone laid on the coffee table, which was missing about two-thirds of the books your half remember being there.

You check your phone for the time. It’s Wednesday now, about 10:23 am, and there were three missed calls from Papyrus plus one voicemail from him.

“HELLO Y/N! NAYA CALLED US AND TOLD US YOU WERE OUT OF THE HOSPITAL EARLY! I KNOW IT’S QUITE EARLY IN THE DAY, BUT IF YOU’RE OKAY WITH THIS, I’D LIKE TO COME VISIT YOU, AND BUZZ WANTS TO HANG OUT WITH YOU TOO AFTER WORK! SO UMM- CALL ME BACK WHEN YOU’RE FREE-OKAY-BYE!”

Okay then. You make a mental note to remember you might have more company later and text a smiley face to Papyrus.

YOU: :)

MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS: :D HOW ARE YOU FEELING? CAN I HELP WITH ANYTHING? WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO COME COOK DINNER?

You wish you had your friend's energy. His offers of assistance do make you smile though. How considerate of him!

YOU: Of course! how can I say no to a free meal from the Great Papyrus? And I'm good otherwise. I think my cats miss you anyways, so I'd love for you to visit later

YOU: bring Sans. He's getting friendship spaghetti too, because he can't be trusted with the Scar alone

MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS: SHOULD I BRING SCAR? I'D FEEL BAD ABOUT LEAVING HIM OUT, HIS BROTHER IS AT YOUR HOME AFTER ALL

YOU: Well I can't stop you. Warn him that my leg won't stop me from decking or setting my cats on him if he decides to be a prick tho

MASTER CHEF PAPYRUS: THAT'S FAIR. I'LL SEE YOU LATER TONIGHT! ;D

YOU: See ya later Pap };D

…

You slide into the kitchen in all of your one legged glory, Angel carefully held in your arms like a baby, "We've got company later! The other house is coming! Everybody act natural!"

(Baby. Company. De’Fonts? There was something-)

Bones fell over like gravity had increased on him, lying like a corpse in the doorframe between the dining room and the kitchen, Red used his magic and stuck himself to the ceiling and sat in a frog position, and Rus posed dramatically (although not before sparring a longing glance at the closest, largest window, like he planned to use it for an escape of sorts), his long red scarf waving in the wind the house didn't have(?). You find the scene hilarious, this is exactly how magic should be used.

"If this is your natural, what have you three been doing since you arrived and what does 'unnatural' look like?" You force out between lung crushing giggles, and you feel Angel purring under your chin.

Bones snorts from the floor, "wouldn't you like to know."

You gently set Angel down before using your own magic to set yourself upside down on the ceiling with Red and wiggle your eyebrows at him, "Absolutely-not-down-to-earth buddies?" You offer.

"yer' speakin' my language, lady." He agrees.

You point a finger at Rus, "And no self defenestration in this house mister skeleton! I saw that look!"

"NYEH HEH HEH HEH! YOU'VE CAUGHT ME, I GUESS I SHALL SAVE THAT FOR ANOTHER DAY. DEFENESTRATION DOESN'T DO ITSELF!"

"it does if there's a second party. sorry that she crashed your _ window _ of opportunity bro." Bone chimes from his dead body modeling from the floor.

Red chuckled while Rus's eye sockets leak tears of betrayal and despair, "SA- BONES NO. I CAN'T BELIEVE I'M RELATED TO YOU!"

You swear you've heard Papyrus say those exact words (minus the naming mistake) to Sans once when a pun was uttered. Or maybe it was another pair of brothers which the interaction occurred between.

Another pair of brothers. The faces of two humans with many physical similarities to the several additions to your and your neighbour’s households flashes through your mind. Angrier, and battle experienced, but still… A pair of brothers. They know something important.

Before you can piece everything back together, your thoughts scramble themselves and you forget… Whatever you’d been focused on before, and you can only barely remember the fuzzy image of a purple and gold bordered card, with a deep scarlet design and stark white lettering.

Well, it’s Wednesday, you’ve got from today until friday to plan the perfect mountain sightseeing trip. In this time, you can also talk with the new occupants of the other house. You have a feeling you’d like to see them judged by your cats. Speaking of cats- you can stay with your babies too! This is wonderful, despite the pain you had to get here.

Void sprinted into the kitchen and began chirping and jumping under your position, still glued to the ceiling. This causes Rus to coo and Bones to move from his corpse impersonation to watch the new addition to your weird little group gathering in the room.

“so when’re the neighbours coming over?” The floor skeleton inquires.

“Pa- Van said he’d bring them over after work, and he gets off early today… including return time… five ish? So we’re probably having a _ huge _ dinner party!” You declare, “What food do you guys like? And can someone text the other house so we know what to make?”

“I HAVE THEIR NUMBERS! YOU CAN COUNT ON ME!” Rus chimes, rising to the occasion and dashing out of the room.

You, chuckling, decide to finally lower yourself from the ceiling but wince when you rest your weight on your injured leg again. The human in the room appeared beside you, like he was bracing for you to topple over. Void ceased the jumping and quietly trotting around the two of you, seemingly in concern.

“It’s all good,” You assured Red, “It’s not like I have holes in my leg anymore!”

Not the right thing to say. Red tensed like a gun was pointed at him, Void stopped moving at his side, and your head immediately filled with ‘YOU DUN GOOFED’, “Ah. I didn’t- I admit that wasn’t what I should have said, I’m really fine, I promise Red.”

He simply doesn’t respond, looking up at you with wide, crimson eyes, like he was looking through you at something else.

“Red?”

“i know sweetheart.” The human’s voice sounded far away and empty, “you’re okay. that’s okay.”

Bones has fully focused his attention on the two of you and the early morning positivity had faded to tension, “red? you look sort of pale there bud…”

Red took a deep breath, and gently pressed his hand against your arm, as if to reassure himself that your were steady, “s’all good. scar likes lasagna and pretty much any pasta and cheese dish. good luck.”

Then he vanished. You shared an uneasy look with the other monster remaining in the room. Angel trotted up to you and sat beside Void, looking up at you expectantly.

“Did the cats get fed?”

…

Angel watched calmly as you rode a blaster around the kitchen so you could navigate the kitchen with ease. Rus danced around you to assist in the cooking. You had a comfy tank top on and old shorts. You weren’t lazy enough to stay in your pyjamas all day, but didn’t feel energetic enough to dress nicely. Your leg was still sore too.

“How’s the spaghetti going Pap?”

“WONDERFUL! IT’S ALMOST ALL DONE BOILING AND THE SAUCES ARE PRETTY MUCH DONE. HOW IS THE LASAGNA AND OTHER DISHES SO FAR?”

“Chicken is cooling down, veggies are done now, and lasagna has another half hour on it. Has Sans come back with the drinks yet?”

“what? these drinks?” At that, you and Papyrus spun around to see the shorter skeleton behind you two, two bags of drinks like pop, juice and sweeter drinks.

“Just in time, can you put them in the fridge so they can be chilled for dinner?”

“you got it Y/n.”

“SPAGHETTI IS FINISHED! I’LL HAVE IT SET OUT ON THE TABLE ONCE I’M DONE WITH IT.” Papyrus announced.

“And I’ll put the vegetables and chicken breast out too-”

“NO I’LL TAKE THEM! YOU KEEP THE FORT-ERR THE KITCHEN SAFE, MAKE SURE SANS DOESN’T HIJACK ANY FOOD WITH KETCHUP.”

“Will do commander Papyrus.” You say, giving the retreating skeleton a two finger salute and turning to the other monster, “You aren’t really going to ketchup-ize dinner, are you?”

“nah.” Sans laughed in response.

“I’m assuming you grabbed drinks too?”

“um yes? what do you take me for? i got cola, a bunch of juice, some fancy-shmancy wine and other stuff that makes a dangerous party,” Sans gasps, faux offended, as he opened the fridge and began putting the drinks away.

“And the monster booze I listed?”

“bold of you to assume i didn’t want any either. spicy level, waterfall watermelon, you know, the good stuff.”

“Perfect.” You beam, “I knew I could trust you Sans! You’ve got a good taste for party drinks!”

The skeleton before you grinned and his sockets crinkled. If you were being honest, it was cute, but right now, that was not what you were here for, “Stars, you’re really _ drinking _ up the praise here.”

“i guess i’ll just have to _ swallow _ my pride huh? but i guess i could do it for you, lady.”

“Aww I feel so honoured Bones. I don’t know if I can _ stomach _ all this attention.”

“NYEH! I SWEAR! ONE DAY I WILL MAKE YOU _ EAT _ YOUR HORRIBLE WORDS! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU’VE INFECTED OUR HOST TOO!” Papyrus cries out as he returns to the kitchen.

What a scene this is. Three monsters in a kitchen laughing your metaphorical asses off (at least for two thirds of the company), while lasagna finished cooking. One is leaning on the fridge, the other looked purely done with life itself, while still letting out giggles, and the last is on a floating animal skull near the oven.

…

Red and Scar were the first to arrive, early at that. Sans came on his own, as Papyrus was still at work.

“hey y/n, i’ve had this question for a while… did you nickname Scar that like the villain from the lion king?” Sans asked in private.

“Hummmmm… I have no comment.” You elected to say.

“oh my god you did didn’t you?”

“No comment!” You protested, “And bold of you to assume he doesn’t already know what it could mean!”

“he does?!”

“How would I know? It’s a human movie! I can assume he knows! Now move it, I have to get the lasagna!”

Right at that moment, there’s a knock at the door. You have your hands on a hot lasagna tin, with potholders of course, and you can’t really answer the door for your guests, “Red? My hands’re kinda full, so can you grab the door?”

“you got it sweethea-”

Scar interjects, “AHEM.”

“door getting opened. on it.”

You deliver the finished food to the table, waving at Rus and Bones, who are doing something on their phones at the table, “still riding the blaster?”

You sighed and shrugged after you put down the lasagna, “Yeah. Leg still hurts I guess.”

“WE HAVE ARRIVED! MISS MONST- MISS CAPTAIN! HOW ARE YOU DOING? I DIDN’T KNOW YOU WERE OUT OF HOSPITAL ALREADY!”

“yo.”

“Hey guys! Welcome to dinner!”

The last two guests, Jazz and Buzz had arrived, meaning it was a full house. They removed their shoes and Red hesitantly directed them to the table, you waved from your place almost back in the kitchen.

"SO WHAT'S FOR DINNER?" Buzz inquired.

"YOU'LL SEE!" Rus answered before you could explain what your plans were. He silently pleads with you to side with him with his eye sockets somehow forming magic puppy eyes.

All you can do is groan and accept defeat. You now legally can’t say anything. (Well not _ legally _ but morally you know… You’re justice is weighing on you. Very much.) “I can’t believe this… Why must you do that to me Rus?”

“NYEH HEH HEH! WHAT BETTER WAY TO START A FAMILY DINNER THAN A SURPRISE?”

“OH! SO TRUE! YOU ARE BRILLIANT MR. RUS!” Buzz congratulates.

(Your friendship sense are tingling.) You smile at the budding friendship growing before you. Now time to check the kitchen, since now that all the guests were here, you could grab the drinks.

Apparently you weren’t the only one with that sentiment, “hey. can i help with whatever you’ve gotta do?”

The human reappears in all of his orange hooded glory beside you and the fridge in the kitchen. Somehow, it makes you feel overdressed. You are fairly sure you are on an equal level. Perhaps? “I guess? It’s just drinks and stuff. I can get them if you want to sit down?”

“you drive a hard bargain ma’am. but i’d feel bad after all the work you, Bones and Rus put in. what can i carry?”

You humm and grab almost a fourth of the drinks and carefully pass them to the helpful human, “Uhh here’s the juice, I think I can give you the human wine on the second trip I think… I’ll take the rest of the stuff.”

“is that monster alcohol?” He asked, unbelieving. 

“Yeah. It’s kinda heavier than human booze. I think it’s the magic, so if you’re going to try it, I think you should be prepared to get wasted. Fast.”

“sick. can i try some later?”

“Uhh. Not like I can stop you, but please keep your digestive business inside your body and not on my carpet?” You suggested.

“i’ll do my best. be back in a sec.” He vanishes for a moment, and you briefly hear his voice ring in the dining room, before the clink of the wine being set on the table. “i have returned, can i have the rest?”

“Yeah, here you go. I’ll take the monster stuff.” You pile out the rest of the booze and hand half of it to Jazz, “So anything else you want?”

“can you get Scar to stop drilling holes into my back? nyeh heh heh.” You floated a little closer to his side so you can see over his shoulder, and there he was.

Scar looking half murderous, from the doorway of the dining room, just down the hall. His eyes have a dull red glow that glanced off the white walls. Once he notices your confused look, he ducks back into the dining room and you hear him mutter something angrily to Red, and Red’s hushed whispers in return.

You turned back to Jazz, who looked back at you with wide, tangerine irises, “how? he never screws off when someone’s pissed at him!”

“No idea.” You shrugged, the slight exhaustion of this week setting in again, “Maybe it’s magic or something. Or maybe he’s scared I’ll screw with the lasagna in the name of vengeance? No clue, honestly.”

Was this what the other house was like on a daily? How long had it been? Not even a full week? This was giving you a slight headache just thinking over. Your eyebrows stitched together and Jazz gently pats you on the shoulder, “it’s alright. thanks for the ever mysterious save.”

“No problem. Can you help me bring out the lasagna in like… 15 minutes?” You sighed.

“sure Cap. anything else i can help with?” He asks.

You shake your head and assure him that there’s not much left to do. The two of you end up talking in the kitchen while waiting for the last bit of food to finish. Puns were thrown, much to your joy, and you didn’t notice the quieting in the next room until timer sounded and as soon you turned it off, you were greeted with complete silence.

(Complete silence. Like when the-)

Jazz grabs some oven mitts and totes the steaming lasagna down to the dining room. You float on a blaster quietly behind him and you wave to every guest but Scar when you arrive. You and Jazz carefully pretended not to notice Scar’s scalding glare that bounced between the two of you. The rest of the guests noticed this, and Sans- Ketchup helps you off your blaster and onto a seat beside him and Vanilla. You’re pretty sure Sans glared his own burns into Scar’s body and you did your best to pretend to not notice the silent war causing tension that almost soured the food.

“So Red, how was your day?”

“ehh. was okay, but it got better when i came back sweethea-” Scar refocuses his death glare onto his own brother and Red tenses and cuts himself off, “Cap. great day. great day Cap.”

“Really? That’s awesome Red, and are you familiar with the routes you want to take over Mt. Ebbot this weekend?”

“oh uhh… not yet?”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN THIS WEEKEND?” Scar accused.

“Hiking, I wanted to show Bones and Rus around the surface since they’re here and all. You’re all invited if you want to come, although we can’t make you do anything so you don’t have to join us.” Scar twitched. His eyes narrowed further somehow and your own fingers found themselves tapping irritably on the table, only building the tension further and attracting Rus and Bones’ nervous eye lights.

...

This was going to be a long night (you weren’t even past Wednesday night), and you had a feeling you'd need to count how often you refilled your glass with monster booze. You would have words with the DangerTown brothers later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Odd huh. Let me know what you think in the comments.

**Author's Note:**

> You've reached the end. Let me know what shenanigans you want Reader to get up to. Or how many bets Naya needs to place around his older sister's social and romantic life.


End file.
